Not Yet Broken
by FanFicCity
Summary: Chris is settling into family life, where secrets are a thing of the past and he thinks he can finally be happy. But, of course, he can't. When catastrophic events, caused by evil Wyatt's interference, lead the sisters to Chris' future, his life in a ruined future is spilled out for all to see. And it's not a pretty sight.*Sequel to "Not Quite Chris"; can be read alone* Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Chris Perry Halliwell was making tea- Chris style. Upon the steady guidance of his hand, cups whooshed around the Halliwell Manor kitchen, clinking in the air. As they sat unsteadily down on the counter, tea bags shimmied out of their tins and fell lightly into the cups, and Chris poured the steaming hot liquid into them by hand. Meanwhile, a spoon transporting sugar on a tremulous path through the air wavered slightly, and part of it's load was sprinkled into Paige's hair as she nibbled on her toast.

"Damn it Chris!" Paige whined, shaking her hair with vigour.

From the opposite end of the table, where Piper was reading a paper, she spoke absent-mindedly, "No sugar for me, honey."

Chris grimaced guiltily at Paige, who was raking her fingers through her sugary hair, "Sorry. I wasn't looking."

She frowned, but a hint of a smile played on her cheek as she commented, "Chris, this must count as personal gain. And you know that when there's personal gain, magic plays up. So I'd stop this if I were you and let me have breakfast in peace!"

Chris scoweled through a smile.

"You're telling me that taking some slight short-cuts in making a few innocent cups of tea is _personal gain_, and will result in horrific consequences? Right. Sure, Paige." He scoffed.

Paige's lips and eyebrows both raised in a look that said,_ wait and see, you'll be sorry_.

The fridge door opened of Chris' accord, from the other side of the kitchen, and the milk obediently rushed over to Chris' awaiting hand, and he poured. It was difficult to believe that it had been a mere week and a half since the Charmed Ones had discovered Chris' identity during that hazy event that had been a war between good and evil. Piper was surprized, especially, at how easily he had slipped into the family unit. He had gone from the strange intruder who's motives they questioned, to a part of the family. And, for the sisters, it'd been natural to accept, and even be uplifted, by his more frequent and comfortable presence.

Chris poured the milk and began to stir it into the tea."Wow. I'm terrified. What if this milk blows up!" Chris intoned, sarcasm dripping from every sillible. He was enjoying this new slot he'd found in the family. At least, more than he'd enjoyed being hidden away in the attic, flipping through the Book's dull pages monotonously.

Chris smiled to himself as Phoebe danced into the kitchen, laptop in hand, and sang out, "All my work is finished, and the problems of America's lovely citizens have been solved by moi! Take that Elise, you slave-driver!" She punched the air triumphantly, and then spotted the floating silver-wear. "Making tea? Chris, honey, could you make me one too?"

"Sure." Chris replied softly, and flicked his finger to summon another cup, a tea bag and another spoon of sugar. At that moment, however, the sugar spoon came to an abrupt halt, jilting in mid-air. Abandoning it's load, it immediately flew over to Chris, who was wide-eyed, and began to attack him, hitting his head sharply with the force of a bat.

"Aowch! Jesus Chr_- Owch!" _

Piper, Phoebe and Paige cracked up laughing as the man winced and yelled, backing away from the killer spoon, which followed with a vengeance as he ran from the kitchen.

"I told you so!" Paige called.

Then, all of a sudden, a crash could be heard from the living room, and the laughter ceased. An air of unease took it's place.

"Chris...?" Piper called, troubled.

More crashing. The sisters threw concerned looks. Instinct took over as the sisters each leapt from their places and took off, heading for the sound of the commotion.

Piper came to a surprized halt at the living room entrance. Two demons were stood in the mess that had been the living room, where orniments lay in pieces and wallpaper smouldered like kindling. One stood rigidly afar, and the other held Chris in a fatal headlock, in which he was trapped, choking and spluttering. Anger flared in Pipers eyes. She instantly raised her hands and _pushed_, and Chris' attacker erupted in deadly flames, his helpless scream dying with him. Chris fell to the floor in a wheezing, choking heap.

"Chris, _look out_!" Phoebe called as another demon aimed a dagger at Chris' back.

"Dagger!" Paige commanded, lurching foreward. In a washing of blue light, the dagger appeared in her hand. Unaware, the demon plunged his empty fist into Chris' side, and Chris threw a hand that sent the demon flying, and ultimately crashing into the cabinet behind him with a painful grunt. As glass and jagged wood enlodged itself into the demons body, he was consumed by deaths fire, screaming futily.

Phoebe ran to Chris to help him clamber unsteadily to his feet.

"What the hell did _they _want? I supose it wasn't to murder me for the tea..." Chris grumbled, wavering slightly on his feet.

"Chris..." Piper strated as she approached Chris, her face a mask of worry. "What is that on your neck?"

As Piper took her hand away from his neck where she had attentively placed it, she gasped to see it painted in sticky, thick blood. Blood which was streaking Chris' throat and face.

"Oh my God, Leo?_ Leo_!"

A tense filled pause- then, with only a seconds delay, Leo orbed into the room and walked briskly towards where his son stood, stuttering.

"What's happened?" He asked seriously, eyes widening at the blood.

Everyone began to talk at once, recalling their dim knowledge on events and wearily eyeing the blood that was now trailing it's way into Chris' shirt. However as soon as he'd inhaled enough oxygen to regain focus, Chris yelled for attention.

"Guys! Hey, listen... Calm down, this isn't my blood! I'm fine." The sisters and Leo's heads whipped his way, their eyes demanding and explanation. Chris hastily obliged. "Didn't you see? The demons already had blood on their hands when they attacked. They were soaked in the stuff! But the blood wasn't mine."

"Wha..." Piper stepped back, bewildered. "Why were their hands blooded? And- and where'd the blood _come_ from?"

No-one had noticed Paige's absence since she'd drifted from the group whilst they'd been talking. They realised now, as Paige called, her voice strained and broken, from the hallway. Wearily, the others trailed to find her. And gasped.

Paige was wimpering softly. Her water-brimmed eyes were locked ahead of her and her face had turned a deathly white. Gradually, she raised a shuddering, pale finger, and pointed. Scrawled on the wall beneath the stairs was a message written in blood; blood which dripped from the unskilfully traced words to the sodden carpet. It read: **_Give Up Brother, Or Loose Them All..._** But this, surprisingly, wasn't the sight that immediately captured all eyes attention, for all were instead glued to the mangled corpse that hung, knives pinning it in place, on the wall next to the words. Her eyes were hallow with death and some blood still seeped from random, raw rippings in her limp body. Chris' heart seemed to melt as he eventually placed the corpse. It was Ruby Halliwell.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Chris was spell-bound with shock. He couldn't move. He couldn't breath. Whatever words he'd begun to utter had been caught in his tight throat. All his sapped energy allowed him to do was stare at the pitifully hallow corpse that hung on the wall. The corpse of his once vibrant, fiery cousin. His crushed heart couldn't take it. Eventually, he found the strength to orb, and he promptly collapsed to the attic floor. He just knelt there, not quite sure what to do.

Damn Wyatt. Damn him to hell!

Chris had always thought Ruby was safe. Ruby had been one of Wyatts favourites- he loved her passion and strength and wanted her as one of his own, the way you'd greedily eye the most prestigious pedigree pup. Wyatt had always left a space open for Ruby space open, and Chris had been glad of it, as it ensured her immunity. But now... Wyatt must really want Chris' plans foiled. For he'd murdered his favourite cousin and left her broken body as a message- that she wasn't to be the last. Seeing her like that, so cruelly discarded...

As bile born of disgust began to rise in Chris' throat, he fought to choke it back. He'd barely heard the jingles of the orbs as his family appeared behind him. Piper rushed to embrace him, motherly instincts taking over.

"You alright?" Leo started, only to be glared down by Chris. Again. _Do I look alright to you? _Chris thought, regarding his father with loathing.

"Chris..." Phoebe stuttered, regaining her composure slowly, "did you know her? Who was she?"

Phoebe's words seemed to inflict physical pain on Chris, as he winced and crumbled smaller.

Talking his mothers hand to gently lead her away, Chris stood.

"No more secrets, remember?" Leo started, trying to keep his voice steady.

"Phoebe... I-I'm so sorry..." Chris' own voise failed him.

"You're- sorry?" Phoebe stuttered, frowning.

"That was Ruby. She was your- your daughter. Your only..." Chris couldn't finish his sentence.

Phoebe took a swift intake of breath. Her soft skin, already pale from the shock of the body paled further to a sickly grey. Seeing her legs begin to fail, Paige lead her to the small sofa in the corner of the attic, placing her down as if she were a fragile doll.

"My- my daughter?" Phoebe managed to utter. "And... and _Wyatt_ did that?"

Chris narrowed his deep green eyes as he stated: "Yes. But believe me, it's not as unusual as you'd expect."  
As she held Phoebe's shaking hand, Paige's face steeled, "Prat."

Piper found it hard to take offence from that remark, but it seemed justified, considering.

"I said I'd protect her. That I'd never let anything happen to her. I..." Chris' sentence was lost in the air, but continued to torture his mind.

Phoebe smiled sadly, her tears redirecting on their gradual paths down her flushed face. "Chris, it's alright. All of this is going to change anyway, isn't it? We haven't lost anyone, really."

Chris shrugged and stood up, his shoulders still shaking slightly. "It's good logic. Doesn't feel like it though." He walked over to stand behind the Book. Not for any reason in particular. He just felt more at ease there. More ready for action; as if nothing in the world could touch him. "Okay, well. That just happened. Now, what are we going to do about it?"

Xx

_In another time and place (an abandoned supermarket in 2025, to be precise), Bastina Halliwell (who'd been named by an imaginative 5 year old. Literally. But more on that later.) diligently scried over a giant map of the world. Her eyes were fixed, unwavering, on the crystal and the places it hovered over, unable to decide, flickering over continents and countries. Suddenly, she jumped. A drop of blood slammed onto the map where her eyes had been lingering. She brought a hand to her forehead. It was wet. Damn. The blood was seeping from a cut there. She dropped the crystal, growling in frustration, and pulled an already blood-sodden rag from her pocket, bringing it up to press against her forehead. She sighed and gazed around the shop in which she'd taken refuge. The shelves had, of course, been ravaged long ago by the starving people of the city, and now all that was left was a hallow shell, with equally hallow wrappers and cans littering the floor, colliding with leaves, twigs and blood._

_Ah, blood. That was all she ever seemed to notice these days. The blood spilled, who's it was, and how much of the unlovely stuff had been lost this time._

_What lovely thoughts I have, she thought wryly, picking up the crystal again._

_Suddenly, the shimmer of orbs could be heard, and two figures solidified into the room. One was Darryl, who was looking more than a little flustered, his untamed beard even more dishevelled than usual, with nervous hands constantly aggravating it. The second was her very own auntie Prue, who, taking her hand away from Darryl's after they'd orbed fully, blinked in surprize upon seeing Bastina._

_"Bas!" Prue instantly ran towards her niece, relief flooding through her. "I can't believe it! You're supposed to be dead!"_

_"What!" Bas instantly recoiled. "Since when!"_

_"Are you kidding?" Darryl chipped in, his voice uncharacteristically high. "Since eight flipping months ago, when you were assumed to be in the fire that brought down our Stronghold and killed hundreds of the General Resistance, not to mention the main! Where the hell have you been!"_

_Bas frowned, clearly confused. Then, realisation dawned on her face, and she looked slightly sheepish._

_"I- I'm sorry. I was looking for Chris, to help him. I used the new time-jumping spell. I thought I'd only been gone a few days. Guess it kinda back-fired."_

_"Kinda back-fired!" Daryl screamed, his face going red. "Girl, you've given us all some serious heart-ache thinking you were dead! Do you even know what we've been going through without you! Your mother- bless her soul- would God-damn give you an earful if she knew the pain you'd caused. If I were Paige, I'd God-damn..."_

_"Jeez! C'mon Darryl, give the girl a break." Prue quiped, and Darryl pushed his lips together tight. Turning her head away from the obviously over-stressed Darryl, Prue smiled at Bas, tears brewing in her deep, green eyes. "I've missed you." Prue regarded Darryl again. "And, evidently, so has he!"_

_Bas smiled back. Darryl nodded, and looked to the floor to hide the tears that had begun to spring in his eyes, too._

_"Did you find Chris?" Prue asked, her voice hopeful._

_Bas' gaze fled to the floor. "No. That spell sucked. I just ended up flitting back and forth between pointless events in history." She shrugged. " I'm pretty sure I'll be in a history book or two if you ever had time to scan an old library. The whole journey was kinda educational. For example, you can be sure that Henry the Eight was a disgusting, dirty old man." Bas giggled slightly at the memory, then mentally chided herself. She wasn't sure why, but no-one ever seemed to be able to giggle and not instantly feel guilty about it. Bas wondered if it had always been this way._

_Prue sighed. Bas hand't found him. And after all that. It wasn't that she didn't trust Chris. To the contrary, Prue would rather set herself on fire ten times over than put the fate of the world in any-one else's hands. But she just worried about her nephew. It'd be nice to know he was doing alright. Coping alright._

_"We'll just have to keep waiting. If we needed to be updated on anything, Chris would make sure that we were. Everything is probably fine- going the way we planned. If we just wait a little longer, he'll come through for us."_

_"Of course. I, for one, have no doubt of that. Until then," Darryl began, stepping forward to Bas, "we need you to come back as acting Leader. The Resistance is kinda falling apart at the seams with disorganisation. Ever since..."_

_"Ever since Ruby went missing, right?" Bas interupted. "Yeh, I heard. I was just scrying for her."_

_"And?" Prue inquired, flicking back an unruly slither of silky black hair in annoyance._

_"Nothing." Bas sighed in frustration. "What'dyou suppose that means?"_

_"Honestly?" Prue started, her eyes suddenly faraway "I don't like to think about it."_

_In silence, Prue thrust her arm foreward, knowing that both Darryl and Bas would take it instinctively. They were all awash in orb lights for an instant until they were gone._

_Xx_

"Piper, you alright?" Phoebe asked, concerned as she spotted her sister claw at her forehead, looking as if she were in pain.

"Oh, sure." Piper brushed off. Then, she looked up, and her face was guilty. "Actually, no. Not exactly."

The faces gathered in the living room all turned to look at her. Chris and Paige's faces echoed Phoebes concern, but Leo looked rather sheepish.

"Umm, y'know, I think I might be, erm... Well, I don't know if this is the best time to bring it up, but..." Piper pursed her lips.

"Oh!" Chris cried triumphantly as realisation came to him. Then he recoiled as he was struck with another realisation. That this was completely weird. "You're pregnant. Of course." He shuffled uneasily.

Phoebe and Paige were startled, even though, realistically, it shouldn't have been all that shocking. Phoebe shot a look at Leo.

"And you knew?" She said, glaring.

"Well, of course I did! How do you think we- we could've... I mean..." Leo trailed off.

"Hey, woah, woah, waoh!" Chris jumped from his seat, waving his arms about frantically. "I'd like to keep hold of the little sanity I have left, thank you very much! Jeez!"

Piper tossed him a wry grin, while Leo stood awkwardly and cleared his throat.

"Okay enough of the distractions, back to the original plan. Chris? You coming?" Leo tossed his head, gesturing for his son to come.

"Where?" Paige asked.

Chris stood and walked to his father with obvious reluctance. He winced as he got close. "We're going to get advise from Gideon. Y'know, since he always knows _everything_, being an Elder and all." Leo turned to Chris as he said this, looking slightly wounded. "No offence, Dad. I know you're an Elder too, but, lets face it, you're not exactly the most well informed."

Leo looked set to argue, but clearly gave up. How could he get annoyed at Chris when he'd so easily called him Dad? Chris was now stood, obviously realising what he'd said, and obviously regretting it, but Leo couldn't be happier. He'd come to notice over the past week and a half that Chris was far from Leo's biggest fan; he'd been openly cold and distant from him, having no reason now to hide his contempt. And Leo was hurt. Could he have been a bad Dad in some way? Not there for his son? Did he maybe do something unforgivable? Whatever the reason, Chris had shown every-one else some form of love or appreciation _but_ Leo. Leo was, therefore, determined to get to know his son more, and break through the barrier that he'd thrown up.

"Whatever." Chris brushed off awkwardly. "C'mon, lets go. The sooner we can get this whole Evil Wyatt thing figured out, the sooner we can get back to what really matters. This Wyatt. The cute, baby one." Chris stepped closer to Leo. "Who, by the way, I much prefer. Mum, rest up. We'll be back asap."

Casting his mother one final, reassuring smile, Chris orbed away, and Leo quickly followed.

Seconds later, when the orb chimed had faded, Paige stood up and clapped her hands pointedly. "Alrightly, where shall we start. Potions for protection? Or a protection spell on the whole house? Not to mention the, _ahem_, cleaning up we have to do..." Paige's voice strayed, but she instantly got off of the disturbing topic of the 'mess' on the wall under the stairs, which still hadn't been cleared. She managed to shrug it off. "Looks like we've got our work cut out for us, girls. Jump to it!"

"Speak for yourselves!" Piper grinned as Phoebe jumped up at Paige's command. "You heard the kid. I gotta rest up. But, by all means, you two get working. Don't let me rain on your parade."

Paige and Phoebe shot their sister- who was usually against being held back by the minor annoyance that was pregnancy- a _look_, as she spread herself over the couch, reaching for the remote control.

"Oh, TV! How long it has been..." Piper sighed.

Phoebe and Paige strutted away to begin their work as Piper sat and pretended to be interested in a re-run of 'How I Met Your Mother'. Really, her mind was faraway. Thinking about her sons; predominantly her eldest. Thinking about the savaged body that was hanging on their wall, and the little, perfect blonde baby who would- one day- cause it to be put there.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

In the seclusion of Magic School, in the massive Library inside it, Gideon, the distinguished Elder, sat drumming his fingers on the desk he was sat at. His eyes seemed to be set on the dusty piles of books that were carelessly scattered before him, but in fact, they were not focused on anything in particular. Gideon was thinking. As he always seemed to be doing these days. Thinking and planning. This was basically his life now; his duty. Ever since Wyatt Halliwell had been born, and that immense amount of power hand been unleashed onto Earth, how could Gideon let any other thought enter his mind, other than how to prevent the evil that such a boy would inevitably bring? Of course, Gideon had resolved a long time ago that he had to devote _all _his time and _all _his efforts into doing something about it. For the future. For the greater good.

The familiar chiming of orbs sounding before him broke Gideons thoughts, and his fingers ceased their drumming. He stood slowly as his good friend Leo and that strange young White-lighter Chris strode briskly towards him.

"Leo, my friend. What seems to be troubling you?" Gideon inquired, his words dragged out dramatically, as was his habit.

"It's Wyatt. The- the evil one, from Chris' future. He seems to have connections in this time, and he's using them to..." Leo didn't know quite how to describe Wyatt's awful actions.

"To dishearten me. Stop me from accomplishing what I set out to. And he's going to pretty great lengths, too. He must be really pissed." Chris salvaged. "Frankly, I can see why someone trying to wipe the current version of him from existence would piss Wyatt off, but I had no idea he knew what we were up to. I mean, what I was up to." Chris sighed. "Anyway, we're here because we think he'll do more, and worse. And not just to us. We wanted to prepare you here at magic school, and the Elders Up There. Y'know. In case of any nasty surprises."

Gideon, who had been listening to the recount of events with quite intrigue, instantly voiced his doubt.

"Chris, I do not mean to sound dubious, but how can you be so sure that Wyatt will continue to be a threat to us." He said slowly. Chris couldn't help but liken him to Professor Snape, a character who irritated him equally.

"Because I know my own brother." Chris stated forcefully.

Gideon recoiled, surprized. But his intelligent mind quickly put together the pieces of the puzzle. It made so much sense! So much that it annoyed Gideon that he hadn't realised sooner. It explained why Chris had risked his own life to come back to the future and save Wyatt. It also explained why he skipped the shortcut of killing him, as Gideon knew was the right course of action. Unlike Chris, Gideon wasn't blinded by emotions of love. Yes, it made sense. _How could I have been so stupid! _Gideon thought, mentally kicking himself.

Leo nodded, his face deadly serious. "I just found out myself." Then he shook his head. "But right now, it's beside the point. The point is..."

"No!" Gideon interrupted, a devious plan already forming in his mind. "No, it is exactly _the_ point. If we want to avoid the consequences, Chris has to go back- sorry- _foreward_ again. Sort out this problem before it esculates. Then he can get back to his mission without this constant worry."

Leo nodded, passing Chris a look. "It makes sense."

"Of course it does." Gideon snapped, irritated for some reason. Leo assumed it was stress. Being an Elder of his standing had to be a difficult job.

The men passed a few more words, and when they were finally sure of what they were going to do, they nodded. Leo and Chris orbed back to the Manor, leaving Gideon to sit, once again, and continue to think.

This was perfect. Truley _perfect_. Gideon outlined the plan in his head, and marvalled at how simple it was and how easy it would be to perform- a pathway had been opened to him! Gideon orbed quickly and stood in his office, instantly striding over to his own desk. Sigmund, who'd been sat polishing his glasses intently, had jumped in surprise, his glasses clattering onto the floor. The man clutched his heart.

"Gosh, Sir. You know, you could knock, rather than scare the wits out of me!" The man chuckled nervously, then fumbled on the floor and, upon finding them, placed the glasses back onto his head. "What's wrong?" He asked, worried.

"An opertunity has arisen, and we have to grasp it." Gideon said, his voice as deep as usual, but noticeably faster, more rushed. It'd bumped up to normal speed. "I need you to go get these things for me, if you would. Listen closely now, don't forget: I need crystals, very powerful crystals; a backwards- not forwards but _backwards_-time jumping potion, of which the time frame has yet to be specified; a shield absorbing Athame; a vile of... Sigmund, are you listening to me?"

Sigmund, who'd slipped back into polishing his glasses, whipped his head up and muttered his apologies, telling his superior that he'd get straight onto it. Gideon sent him away with a satisfied nod.

Yes,

he thought._ This is going to work perfectly. Thank you Chris. Thank you _very _much._

Xx

An eerily quiet three weeks passed by. Other than the average demon bashing, nothing abnormal came about. The Charmed Ones and their companions didn't know whether to be relieved or on edge about this, but there were not about to spoil it by voicing their concerns.

Precautions, however, were still upheld. Leo had gone Up There to discuss with the Elders (as usual) and see what help they could give. After a while of waiting and growing more and more anxious, the sisters had finally had enough.

"Chris, I think you need to go up there and get him." Piper said one day as they were discussing how long Leo was going to take.

"Why? It's just the time-difference. For us he's been ages, when he'll have really only been Up There a couple days." Chris said angrily, not thrilled with the idea of his father returning.

Piper put her hands to her hips. "Just in case something happens!" She snapped. Then, she smiled sweetly at her son. "I'd feel a lot safer if he were here, so Chris, if you don't mind?"

"Fine." Chris sighed. "Anything for you Mum. But then, you know that don't you?" Piper smiled winningly, and with a hint of mischief, as Chris shook his head. "Alright, alright, I'm going."

Xx

When Leo and Chris returned to the Manor from Up There, having only been gone 5 minutes their time, all was not well. They'd orbed into the living room, expecting to find the sisters, maybe, conferring there, or- at least- expecting the room to be empty. It wasn't.

Crunching could be heard under Chris and Leo's feet as they materialised on top of piles of debris- the remains of their floor and furnicher- littering the ground, and the noise was instantly overpowering. Animalistic screams and growls could be heard, with the sisters yells thrown into the mix, rebounding around the house from various positions. Before the men had time to react to all this, however, Leo was thrown back by the force of a whip which struck him painfully in the chest.

"Leo!" Chris cried. His face became a steel mask as as he sent a wave of telikinesis to knock his fathers attaker down. Then, he watched in horror as the demon picked itself up and growled, baring it's teeth at Chris and frantically waving it's claws. Chris recognised the deomn as a Barbarackous. It's eyes were mad and his movements barbaric; not to mention the fact that it was barely clothed. It was a complete savage.

Claws out, the demon hurled himself at Chris, who instantly bent low to set the demons momentum against him. The demon flew over Chris' shoulder, and, having been flipped completely round, crashed into the already vaporised coffee table. Blindly, Chris grabbed a jagged piece of wood from somewhere below him and (not without a hint of reluctance, as usual) twisted round to plunge it into the flailing demons chest. It was instantly vaporised. Within the same second, Chris' head snapped round to see another demon lurch from the stairs and begin to clear the space between them. Chris thrust out a hand and the demon jilted, mid-jump, in the air (much like the spoon had, oh so long ago). As he hung, suspended before Chris, the man clenched his fist to cut off the demons airway. Seconds later, the demon was dead.

Leo, who, with a groan, had managed to stand up unsteadily, regarded his son with respect. And more than a little curiosity.

"Done this a lot, have you?" He said, quite star-struck. Chris shrugged nonchalantly, and Leo sensed his sudden unease, so diverted, by simply stating: "Nice one!"

Chris eyed the bloody slash across Leo's cheast, concerned. But there was no time. The pair ran in two different directions, both towards the sound of screaming.

Xx

In the sun room, the walls of wich had been smashed into oblivion, the broken glass that lay scattered about the floor testimony to that, Phoebe and Paige stood defensively. The five demons that had backed them into a corner snarled as they gradually closed in, enjoying their victory. Phoebe was injured, barely standing even with Paige's help, and the demons knew they'd won. As one, they approached.

To the great shock of the demons, Chris burst into the room and held his arms forward. His face was instantly determined and focused, set on the ground where the demons stood. With Chris' glare, it began to bubble.

Before the demons could lift a foot, their entire legs were submerged in the sticky sludge that the floor had become. Chris gradually forced them under. The weight and force needed to push it was great, but Chris managed to completely submerge the demons- who futilely writhed and struggled- into the ground. As the last ugly head sank and was lost, the ground hardened once again.

With an unaudiable gasp of both relief and pain, Phoebe crumpled into Paiges arms, and Chris ran to them, being careful not to slip. If he did, he'd land in a sea of deadly shards of glass.

"That was awesome." Paige wearily commented as Chris approached to scoop Phoebe into his arms. "You got her?"

"I got her. Are you hurt" Paige shooke her head, gesturing to a few small scrapes and bruises. "Okay, lets go. Leo's back." With that, Chris hurried to find the healer, worried now only for the injured woman that he was carrying.

"Wait." Paige called after Chris.

Paige held her hand out so Chris could see what she'd picked out of the debris. It was a small, cobble stone, that had the appearance of coal. The only difference was that this one flashed red every second beat.

"Do you know what it is?" Paige asked, entranced.

Chris sighed heavily. "Unfortunately, yes. There are lots of different types of them, but this one in particular is a Barbarack Caller. It's like a dog whistle for that specific type of demon. No prizes for guessing who sent for it to be planted here."

"None at all." Paige agreed, as she turned the stone to reveal the words etched into it. _**Come Home Brother**_, it read. Chris rolled his eyes. This was getting ridiculous.

Phoebe began to wimper in his arms, and Chris was brought back to alertness when he remembered that his auntie was hurt badly.

"Quick. Heal now, worry later." Chris said, as he and Paige raced across the wreckage, yelling for Leo.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

_Prue gasped. She could feel her heart tugging, sense someone had appeared. He was far away, but he was definitely here. Her heart sprang with revitalised joy, as she ran through the streets to tell the others._

_Prue had been out scowering the city with her team, searching for anyone person, or maybe even a family, who might still be fending for themselves on the streets outside of the Wall (the great wall separating the General Resistance from Wyatt's population) where the demons, warlocks and evil citizens roamed. But all they'd found today were bodies._

_As Prue ran, she kept to the shadows, in case of a passing threat. She soon spotted one of her comrades, however, and raced across the empty street, not afraid for one second of a car passing and hitting her. Not a single car had been driven on these small-town streets in years._

_The muscly, serious looking man, who was dressed in worn black clothes and grasping a gun to his cheast, stepped over the body led on the pavement, which he'd been regarding sadly, and strode to Prue. He and Prue faced each other, and she took his arm, speaking into his curious face._

_"Andy, I can feel Chris! He's here, in this time!" Prue hurriedly said, her gleaming smile sending a rush of hope down Andy's spine. But he had to be realistic._

_"You know, this might not nessicarialy be a good thing." Andy hated to darken Prue's mood, but it had to be said. Even if it meant wiping away that angelic smile from her face. " In fact, it's most likely to be a very _bad_ thing."_

_Prue sighed, running her finger absent-mindedly across her husbands arm. "I know. Really, I do." She looked up to stare right into his eyes again. "But now I can know for sure that he's alright, and he can tell us how he's been. And imagine how the General Resistance will react to the news that he's back. If he spoke to them publically, their moral would be raised sky high! It's just the boost they need at this point, being that we're so close. The sooner the end gets, the further it seems for them. They need this."_

_Prue sighed, thinking about the masses of people that they'd taken in as refugees of the new world, who were lovingly known as the General Resistance, and, induvidulay, Generals. It was a name given to make them feel more motivated, like their voices could easily be heard. Really, they were the innocents. The people who'd lost not only their homes, but their entire lives, not to mention the lives of many beloved family members. The General Resistance was, in short, what was left of the worlds population, all spread among the hundreds of safe houses set up around the globe. They were at very low points, and Chris, the Resistance Leader, could no doubt sent a message that would give the Generals their hearts back._

_"You're right. I'll let Bas and Darryl know. They'll be thrilled." Andy said, touching his forehead softly against Prue's, and closing his eyes to inhale her scent. "Go after him. I'll tell the others to get the cameras set up. We're giving the Resistance the boost it needs."_

_Prue smiled, feeling the love flood through her for a second, making this rare moment of piece count. Then, she reluctantly pulled away from the man she had lost too many times._

_"I'll see you soon." Prue said, watching Andy give a slow, loving nod, and then orb away._

_Prue latched onto Chris' location._

_Oh, thank the heavens, I really can feel him! She thought, before she orbed to find her nephew._

Xx

Chris, Leo, Paige and Phoebe stood before the glowing Triquetra that shone on the attic wall, each one more than a little afraid of what was waiting on the other side.

"Be careful, you guys." Piper said, hands folded over her cheast. "I'm serious. Don't let anything bad happen, otherwise I'll be all alone. Normally, fine, I can look after myself. But pretty soon I'm gonna start getting _real_ pukey, so I'll need someone to hold my hair back for me."

"That's why Gideon and I made the time potion correct to exactly 15 minutes from now. You'll only have to pace back and forth for a while..."

"Like we _know_ you will." Chris interrupted, making Paige and the newly recovered Phoebe quietly chuckle.

"... and then we'll appear. 15 minutes for you, and who knows how long for us. Tha's the beauty of it. We can take as long as we need, without wasting deadline time here. It's the perfect plan!"

Seconds after those words had left Leo's lips, Gideon orbed into the attic, holding a potion in his hands.

"Here is the potion you will need to return. I finished it off after you had to leave hastily. It will bring you back at the exact time we planned." Gideon handed the potion to Leo, who thanked him with a smile and put it in his pocket.

"Did you charm that pocket?" Chris asked, pointing.

"Yes, Mr Neurotic, I did it for him. Nothing will happen to that potion and you'll get back fine." Piper said with a smile. Then she sighed in frustration. "I just wish I could go with you. This is so annoying!"

"Sorry." Chris said guiltily. "If it helps, I'm still against anyone else coming either." Everyone gave Chris withered looks. "What! I told you, I can do this by myself. You don't need to put yourselves at risk!"

"Leo was right to suggest you stay, Piper. It's not just putting you at risk, but Chris too." Phoebe pointed out sympathetically, choosing to ignore Chris' protests. "And anyway, you'll not feel like fighting when you're all pukey, will you?"

Piper nodded, knowing her sister was right. She still hated the fact that she couldn't come with them. She had no idea what her family were letting themselves into, but from the way Chris had protested that none of them come, she could guess that it wasn't at all good. The plan seemed simple to outside eyes. Go to the future and sever Wyatt's connection to their own time. They'd assumed he'd created a portal (assuming this because it explains why he didn't start the messages earlier- he'd been busy creating it- and how he could get his demons to come and go so quickly and easily whenever he chose), so, in theory, all they had to do was destroy that portal. Easy. Oh, but there was the evil overlord to worry about, plus the millions of demons, warlocks and general bad guys he had at his disposal, as well as the fact that no-one had any idea where this portal was. But, other than that; easy.

Reluctantly, Piper stepped back and watched as her family stepped away from her. Gideon put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, although, with Pipers nerves, the hand only sent icy chills through her body rather than waves of encouragement.

Chris turned back for a second. "It's okay Mum. We'll be back in a few minutes (well, for you anyway), and everything will have turned out okay. Just hang in there. It'll be over before you know it." He said, smiling.

"I know." Piper smiled back, adoringly. "I love you."

"We love you too." Chris spoke softly, gazing for a second before he turned back around.

Together, he, Paige, Phoebe and Leo stepped into the light, and it became blinding. As soon as it had engulfed them, the light shrank and went out like a candle.

Piper turned to look at Gideon. He was smiling.

"What are you so happy about?" Piper snapped irritably.

Gideon gave her an ice cold smile in return. "Oh, nothing." He stepped away. "Give me a yell when they return. I'll see you in a second."

After Gideon had orbed away, Piper struggled to shake the nagging feeling that their carefully laid scheme would go so, terribly awry.

Xx

_Leo, Chris, Paige and Phoebe stepped out of the portal and, slowly, the light cleared from their vision. Only to be instantly replaced by a deep, depressing blackness. The room which they found themselves in was giant; incredibly so. It looked like an abandoned warehouse that had had a few walls smashed in to make it the biggest indoor space for miles around. But it didn't take anyone long to realise that this was a deadly place._

_The whole structure looked so fragile, like it would crumble at the slightest touch. The walls seemed to be made of cinders, and, even as they stood awe-struck, a beam from the ceiling cracked and fell, as if in slow motion, at the far end of the room. There had clearly been a fire here. A massive one. It had consumed the entire building. It was an absolute miracle that it was still standing, albeit, with a few giant wholes making the building look like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle._

_"Where are we? I thought you said you were taking us somewhere you knew?" Phoebe turned questioningly to Chris._

_"I do know it. I mean... did." Chris' face had gone pale and he was taking deep, strained breaths. "I can't believe... How- how could this have happened?"_

_Phoebe stepped to place an arm on Chris'. "Chris- where was this?"_

_Chris forced back the tears that threatened to break free. "This was the Resistance Stronghold." He looked at his family's questioning gazes. "I've told you a little of the Resistance, haven't I? The force against Wyatt. We have various safe-houses, and they're everywhere- literally. We've got connections around the entire planet! But this one, here in New York, this was the main one, where we were closest to our enemy and our roots. Everyone I knew was here..." Chris' voice broke._

_Leo stepped foreward, feeling the crack beneath his feet. "We'd better leave before this place falls on top of our heads."_

_Leo orbed the gang outside, where the site was not much better. The car park was abandoned, exept for the few cars scattered about, dusty and broken. For some curious reason, Chris ran to them and peeked inside, searching expectantly. Paige called to ask what he was doing._

_Chris faced them, disheartened. "People slept in these cars. I thought that, maybe..."_

_Chris was interrupted by the chiming of obs, and he broke into a smile as a figure materialised behind where his family stood._

_"Antie Prue!" He called, bounding over._

_As he rushed past his family, they turned to watch him crush the woman with a great hug. And as they looked closely, their mouths fell open and their eyes widened with shock. They saw that the woman with raven hair, who'd rushed to hug Chris and was now tearfully smiling into his broad shoulder, was in fact the dead Charmed One, Prue Halliwell._

**A/N: **I'm sorry if some people don't like italics, but a lot of the story will be in it now. Not all of it, but a fair bit of the middle. To differentiate between times.

(YAY, PRUE! I used to hate her, but, y'know, my opinion has changed, and I'm so glad I got the chance to write her in! Although the reunion will probably suck, since I have no idea how anyone will handle that. You know what... hugs! That'll do. Lots of hugs!)


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** I have to apologise in advance for the confused font in this chapter! Italics, then bold italics... But you'll see why I've done it.

Please enjoy and review!

:-)

**Chapter Five**

_"God, Chris, thank God!" Prue sobbed, suffocating Chris with her embrace._

_Phoebe gazed on. Her and Leo's mouths had fallen open. Their eyes were wide with shock and Phoebe felt as if her chest was going to explode from the pain- the _physical_ pain- that seeing her sister alive and well gave her. It was a good pain; no doubt! But it hurt just as bad._

_Prue pulled away from Chris and held him at arms length. Only when her nephew had nodded his reassurance, and she herself had taken a deep breath, did she turn to face Leo, Phoebe and Paige, who stood completely and utterly shell-shocked._

_Prue took a tentative step forward. "Phoebe." She mouthed, her already husky voice completely silent where emotion had thickened it._

_Phoebe broke into a run, and didn't slow down once, not even when she forcefully crashed into her sister. Both girls let out the sadness that they'd been holding in for each other in those few seconds, latching onto each other as if they'd never let go. Chris smiled as he watched, happy that he'd reunited them._

_Prue suddenly looked up, flustered, and cried, struggling to speak through her sobs "Oh, Paige! We- we've never met but... but you're my sister just as much as Phoebe. Come here!" Prue opened the hug up for Paige to jump into._

_Paige giggled and playfully nudged Leo in the ribs. "Who, 'lil ol' me?" She said sarcastically, before bounding off to join the hug._

_Leo watched, his heart slowly melting, before resolutely striding over and pushing his way into the circle. He was gathered into the girls arms immediately._

_Arms folded, Chris grinned so wide that it began to ache. But he didn't mind. Like Phoebes combusting heart, it was a good pain. A fantastic pain._

Xx

Piper paced back and forth, as she'd done a thousand times before, only this time, it was different. This time there was a harrowing feeling in her heart unlike any other, and it ached with a demonic passion.

Her family hadn't returned.

It had only been a minute since the time when they were supposed to have arrived back at the Manor, but, of course, even being late for a minute- even a _second_- meant that something had gone earth-shatteringly wrong. Because the potion took them to an exact moment in time. It wasn't possible that they could end up in any other time! Which meant that they'd not used the potion. Which meant that something had stopped them (or will stop them- _stupid time travel_!). Piper's mind ran through all the possibilities. Their deaths? Wyatt intervening? The potion not working?

Piper could imagine her family attempting to carry out their plan, not knowing that it was doomed to fail. No. They had no idea. Only Piper knew that her beloved sisters, ex-husband and precious son would never make it back.

Xx

_Prue and Chris lead their star-struck family through the great airport that had become the new Resistance Stronghold. Leo, Paige and Phoebe had seen a lot of things; a lot of weird, wonderful and down-right petrifying things. But none of them (except maybe Leo, who had fought in a war!) had ever seen anything close to what they did now._

_The entire airport was suffocated with people. They were crammed in tight huddles, their combined voices completely filling the air, leaving no space- it seemed- for any oxygen. Chris himself felt a little light-headed. There was literally no floor space left, which was why wooden walk-ways had to be engineered for the Resistant Mains to be able to move. The group walked across such a walkway now, looking down on the heads below them._

_"These are the people of the General Resistance. Refugees. Victims of the new world." Prue said, looking straight ahead._

_Phoebe noticed a few men and women who were dressed in black, carrying large buckets filled with what seemed to be bars of food. They were little silver- chocolate bars? The people in black were trying to pass them out, but were practically throwing them at the ravenous people._

_"What are those?" Phoebe pondered out loud, pointing._

_Chris followed Phoebes finger. "Special bars we give to the Generals to make them gain weight." He pulled a face. "Before I came to you I was force-fed dozens of those every day. Vile things."_

_Phoebe was shocked. He was thin, even when he came to them. How much thinner could he have been? But, looking down at the skeleton below her, Phoebe concluded that she shouldn't be all that surprised. Even from this dizzying height, she could see how the people were starving._

_Leo was watching with a frown that barely told of his inner pain._

_"This is awful." He stated._

_"This is life." Prue said sadly._

_Prue led them into a room, still high above the ground, which would have been a security room. It was evident, however, that it was being used as some sort of conference room. It was filled with rusty metal and a large table sat in the middle, a map spread onto it. Some office chairs were scattered around._

_"You guys wait here while Chris and I talk." Prue turned to Chris to answer his questioning look. "I need to be updated." She paused. "And I missed you."_

_Chris smiled and nodded. "Will you guys be alright here?" He asked his father and aunties._

_"Sure we will. Don't leave us hanging though." Paige chimed, spinning on a chair like she hadn't a care in the world. Trying, Phoebe guessed, to lighten the mood._

_Prue giggled at Paige, liking this sister already, and walked out of the room with Chris through a door to the right. She stopped for a second at the door-frame._

_"I'm so glad I could see you again. And, Paige, I'm so happy to have met you!" Prue said. Then, she became sad. "It's just a shame that for me to be a White-lighter, the power of three can not exist. Then, I could've come back to you guys earlier. And we could've been a team..." The sisters eyes met wordlessly. Then, with a strained smile, Prue closed the door, leaving the three alone._

_For a moment, the group didn't talk, letting the dust settle from the rush of events that had taken place. Then, Phoebe finally spoke._

_"Chris grew up here." She slowly shook her head. "I had no idea. Jeez. What a world. And it's _ours_. The one we try so hard to protect!" She looked at Leo desperately, who looked sadly back. "Can you believe that we left this world to our children! To the next generation of innocents! Chris is having to clean up after our mess, because preventing things like this was our responsibility, and we failed. Now, he's had to go through all thi... Paige? Paige, are you listening? I'm rambling pure gold over here!"_

_But Paige was looking intently at something else. "Look over there. That door is marked 'Memory Bank'. Do you think it's some sort of pun?"_

_Phoebe and Leo followed Paiges gaze to the large metal door- sure enough, with the words 'Memory Bank' written boldly onto a plaque that was attached._

_"Well, it could be a pun. Or, it could literally be a bank of memories. Ones that they needed to keep for some reason. To preserve all of the details." The girls looked at Leo, bewildered. He nodded. "You can keep memories magically. It's possible."_

_Paige rubbed her hands together. "I've got to check this out!"_

_Rushing towards the heavy door, Paige pushed on the handle. The door groaned in annoyance, but it gradually gave way under Paige's weight._

_"Paige! You'll get us in trouble!" Phoebe chided, following her sister none the less._

_Paige flicked her hair round. "C'mon, you have to admit that you're curious."_

_Paige and Phoebe peeked inside, then fully entered. The room was a long, steel corridor, and various sat glass containers on shelves, which were organised by letters. Phoebe shivered as she watched the contents of the glasses swirl. She could tell that each one held horrific secrets. She didn't dare touch, in case she disturbed them._

_"Paige." Phoebe whispered, rubbing her arms to drive away the goose-bumps. "Let's not. Come on, they'll be back any minute, let's just leave."_

_"Phoebe's right. We shouldn't pry." Leo agreed, entering the room cautiously._

_Paiges voice sounded from halfway down the corridor. "Hey, look, H for Halliwell. There's some of Prue's memories. There's a Rosie, a Poppy, and a... Oh, umm, a- a Ruby." Paige gulped at the memory of the poor, dead girl hanging on their wall. She shook her head as if to fling out the thought. "And someone called Bastina. Hu. Bastina Halliwell. That's pretty adventurous." Then, Phoebe and Leo heard the clink of glass. "Oh! A memory of Chris'! This'll be really interesting! What do I do, just open it?"_

_"Paige, _no_!" Phoebe called, terrified of the ghosts this room seemed to hold._

_But it was too late. Leo and Phoebe heard the smashing of glass._

_"Oops! Guys, I dropped it." Paige fumbled as a dark purple smoke began to rise from the ground where the potion had shattered. She gasped. "What's happening?!"_

_The smoke completely suffocated the room in a matter of seconds, and instantly, Phoebe, Paige and Leo were transported from their own minds, and into Chris'..._

_... The purple fog began to clear..._

**_... And images soon took it's place..._**

**_..."Guys? Can you hear me?" A disembodied voice called. It was Paige. And the answer was yes. Leo and Phoebe could hear her, distantly. But they had no idea where she was. Or, in fact, where they were..._**

**_... "Look! I see something!" Someone called out. Phoebe. "It's Chris! Aww, he's so-o cute!"_**

**_And it was true. Chris _****was****_ cute. It was adorable the way the small, chubby, handsome featured 10 year old slowly strode along the street from a night out at a friends. It was early evening, and, since it was winter, darkness was just beginning to set in the sky, replacing the suns dim glow. The street that the Manor was on seemed normal enough. Peaceful. Not yet ravaged by the horrors that evil Wyatt had subjected it to._**

**_Paige, Phoebe and Leo watched in their minds eye as Chris approached the Manor. They watched his little face drop slightly as he realised that all the lights were out. Chris opened the front door with his key, and stepped into the house. It was dark. And terribly quiet._**

**_"Mum?" He called._**

**_Chis stepped forwards, uneasily. He was not liking the unusually tense atmosphere his home had._**

**_A small, harrowing voice called out to Chris- from the kitchen, it seemed._**

**_"Auntie Phoebe!" Chris raced towards the sound, uplifted._**

**_What he saw did not put him at ease in the slightest. Phoebe was led across the kitchen table, gazing almost lifelessly at the ceiling. A kitchen knife was lodged in her chest, and she was breathing through it in choking breaths. Blood dripped onto the kitchen tiles._**

**_Somewhere in the air, the Phoebe who watched the scene gasped._**

**_"Phoebe?" Chris stepped towards his aunt, his little eyes petrified. "How... who did this?"_**

**_Phoebe gasped, and shook her head a little. The effort looked like a minor stroke. She mouthed something._**

**_"What?" Chris cried, fearfully coming closer._**

**_"Wyatt..." Phoebe repeated. Then her eyes turned to dull plastic._**

**_"Dad...?" Chris called quietly. Then louder. "Dad! DAD! Please, come help!"_**

**_He didn't come._**

**_"Dad, please! Dad, you'd come for Wyatt! Listen to _****me****_ for once! I need you! The sisters need you!"_**

**_Nothing._**

**_Chris stood, staring at his aunt for a few seconds, silently weeping. Then, he span on his heel and headed for the first place he could think of. His cousins room._**

**_Little Ruby, barely 5 years old, was screaming, her face as red as her name. Chris scooped her up, comforting her softly, and raced to the attic with her in his arms._**

**_He stopped at the attic doorway, and placed his cousin down, biding her wait. He then peeked in the doorway, and instantly screamed._**

**_"Wyatt! STOP!"_**

**_Wyatt was stood, Book under arm, glaring at his brother. His mother was led, blood flooding from her stomach, in a crumpled heap on the floor._**

**_"C- Chris... Baby! Run- quick- now- run away honey..." Piper stuttered, but Chris was too stunned to move an inch._**

**_"Hello brother!" He said, his demonic smile piercing Chris' heart._**

**_"What did you do?" Chris cried, lunging forward and crumpling on his knees by his dying mother, who held him close._**

**_"What did I do?" The blonde child, who must've been only just thirteen, repeated mockingly. "I did what should've been done a long time ago. I killed the Charmed Ones. Of course, Paige is still at the hospital, with the complications of giving birth to the triplets and all... But my demons are already on there way to sort her out. The babies, too. Not to mention the rest of the city. And soon, the world!" Wyatt sighed, and looked almost upset and haunted for a second. "It's just sad that the only people standing in the way of my rising to power were my very own family. But no matter! My demons helped me overcome any reluctance I had by giving me some tough love. And I thank them for it. As you, one day, will thank me for this..." Suddenly, Wyatt's face contorted with effort, and he thrust a blinding power from his palms; power that hit Piper and sent her body shaking violently with torrent after torrent of pain._**

**_Chris screamed. He clutched his mother, he himself being taken in the blinding light. And the pain._**

**_"Oh God! How do we make it stop!" A horrified observer- Paige- cried from somewhere over-head. But nothing changed. They had to see the event through to it's bitter end._**

**_When the pain was over, and Chris lifted his head, Wyatt was gone, and Chris was led over his mother. Her eyes were empty, and the tears had stopped flooding from her eyes. She was dead._**

**_Chris yelled, his little hands searching his mothers neck for a pulse. When he found none, he grasped her jumper and shook vigorously, in the vain hope that she'd wake up._**

**_The sound of Ruby crying set Chris back into action._**

**_Still weeping, he stood and rushed to his cousin, who he quickly picked up and showered with kisses between making small hushing sounds._**

**_"Sshh, it's okay, it's alright. You're worried about your new baby cousins aren't you?" Chris said, remembering suddenly. "It's okay. Chris is gonna save 'em."_**

**_Resolutely, Chris raced down the stairs, Ruby weeping in his arms, and bounded out of the Manor, escaping into the black night. He crouched low on the grass outside of his house, hidden in the shadow of the Manor, and placed Ruby down. Chris tried to pretend like he didn't hear the screams echoing through the night from a few streets down. For Ruby._**

**_"'Salright Rue. I'm gonna orb 'em. Like Paige would." Chris told the confused child with more conviction than he felt. "Well, I'm gonna try."_**

**_Chris held out his shaking hands, shocked at the blood that soaked them. His mothers blood. He closed his eyes. He summoned all his strength and powers._**

**_"Triplets!" Chris demanded._**

**_Nothing. Paige, Phoebe and Leo all held their breaths as they watched._**

**_"God-damn it! TRIPLETS!" Chris cried._**

**_In a swirl of blue, three tiny babies appeared on the ground before him, each bound in clean-white blankets._**

**_Letting out a breath, Chris smiled and wiped away a few stray tears._**

**_"Hello babies!" He greeted the little wrinkly faces, who waved their little limbs in the air as a response._**

**_Ruby took some colouring pens from her pocket. She gave them to Chris._**

**_"Rue, maybe this isn't the best time for colouring, hu?" Chris said, taking the pens._**

**_The little girl shook her head. "We gotta name 'em."_**

**_Chris chuckled, ignoring the pain in his chest as he did so. He sniffed. "Alright. What names did Paige like?" He looked at the colouring pens in his palms. "Red." He pondered, making a show of it. "Red for Rosie." Chris wrote a little 'R' on one of the baby's blankets. "Pink is for... Poppy." he marked the second baby with a 'P'. "And Blue is for... Is for... What other names did Paige mention?"_**

**_"Bastina." Ruby said, beaming._**

**_"Rue, I don't think she said that." Chris frowned._**

**_Ruby's little lips puckered in annoyance. "But I like it." She stated simply._**

**_Chris lifted a hand to touch the little girls face lovingly. Then, he stopped when he remembered that his hand was covered in dry blood, and he stopped, so as not to scare her._**

**_"Okay. Blue is for Bastina." He drew a the letter 'B' on the third baby's blanket. She was sleeping peacefully._**

**_"What now?" Ruby asked her older cousin._**

**_Chris sighed. "Well. My Dad still isn't here- still isn't answering me, so- I suppose, for now, we... we hide."_**

_**Ruby's little face looked at Chris in incomprehension. "Leo?" She pointed to the sky.**_

_**Chris nodded, his eyes fogging over with tears once again. "Yes. My Dad. I guess I could go get him." He looked at Ruby, conceren creasing his face. "You're gonna have to wait here. I can't carry all the babies." Chris plucked an adoring kiss on Rubies cheek as she smiled.**_

_**"Stay. Be good." Chris said as he dissapeard in a washing of orbs to Up There to find his father.**_

_**The image shifted instantly, and Paige, Leo and Phoebe expected to be overwhelmed by white. But they weren't. The scene was splashed with red.**_

_**Chris stood rigidly, staring at the remains of the Elders sprawled on the floor, their bodies drowning in pools of their own blood.**_

_**"Dad?" Chris spoke.**_

_**The three devestated watchers eyes turned to follow Chris' gaze. Sure enough, Leo was stood among the bodies. Vey much alive. Although his eyes were as hallow as if he were dead.**_

_**"Chris- Chris, go home. I need to find who did this."**_

_**Chris, who'd been frozen to place in fear, found the energy with wich to shake his head.**_

_**"No, Dad. This was Wyatt." Chris murmered with a dry, pained voice. He flinched as his father became awash with fury, his face contorting withanger and his fists clenched.**_

_**"Chris, how dare you say that of your brother! How dare you!" Leo began to stride through the blood to his terrified son, violence written across his face.**_

_**"I feel sick." Paiges voice could be heard from somewhere, as the image began to run like wet paint, and dark purple began to fog their view...**_

_... Until it began to clear, and the metal of the Memory Bank swept into view..._

_Slowly, Phoebe, Paige and Leo came back to themselves, and were shocked to see that they were not alone. _

_Chris- their Chris- was stood before them, arms folded across his chest, glaring at all three of the guilty individually._

_"What did you do?" He said, but his anger slowly melted into concern as he saw the pain and devastation etched onto his families faces "Umm... Is everyone alright?"_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

It had been five long, hellish months for Piper since her family had gone to the year 2025 and hadn't returned. _Five_ months. And for those five months, Piper had been alone, cursed with her thoughts. In the little bits of information that Chris had given her about the future, Piper gathered that it was a dark time, and she hated to think what her family could be going through. Or what memories of his past Chris would be tortured by. Piper had no idea, but she knew that she wanted her family and the Power of Three safely under the roof of the Manor, where they belonged.

She'd filled the first few weeks with absorbing herself in trying to find a solution to the problem. She'd worked closely alongside Gideon to create a potion to bring her family back, but Gideon had told her- after weeks and weeks of tiring research and potion mixing- that it simply couldn't be done.

"But it has to be able to work! You did it!" Piper had urged, unwilling to give up hope.

"Yes," Gideon nodded, his face annoyingly sympathetic. Piper wanted to slap it. "But there is something blocking us now. Obviously Wyatt doesn't want them escaping. He must have them trapped; it's the only logical explaination for our faliure!" Gideon lied easily, unbeknownst to Piper, "I wish it wasn't true. That I could do something- _anything_- to get your family back. I'm so sorry."

Piper knew it was irrational to want to 'shoot the messenger', but when Gideon spoke those hopeless words, she really did hate him.

When it was clear that Gideon was no help at all, Piper tried to talk to the other Elders, enduring countless long, dull discussions, which each simply outlined the problem over and over and _over_ again, and then had different people of different status' brought in to 'umm' and 'ahh' about it. Piper decided she'd had enough of this, shortly after throwing a massive, violent tantrum and being thrown out of Up There. Huh. Stuff them. She would have just left anyway.

Then, all that was left to do was look after her baby Wyatt and pray for a miracle, as she bore the weight of pregnancy all on her own. Her stomach had quickly begun to swell, and she often found herself holding it on evenings when she was drowned in despair, and whispering softly.

"Chris, where the _hell _are you?"

However, in the end, her salvation didn't come from her second son- the one she so desperately missed being by her side- but instead from a friend she thought had abandoned her.

One day, as Piper watched Wyatt scoop his poridge from his bowl at his high chair, and succeed in getting half of his spoonful to his mouth, with the other half dribbling down his face, the doorbell rang. Piper clutched her stomach with one hand and the table with the other as she heaved herself up. Rather than walk, she waddled to the door.

"Hiya!" She spoke to whoever it was at the door, mustering as much enthusiasm as she could. Then her fake smile faded, and a small, real one began to morph from her expression of surprise.

"Darryl?" Piper almost whispered. "You... You're back?"

Darryl shifted on his feet slightly, but didn't look away from Pipers eyes. He wasn't a man who liked to show when he was nervous. He was an officer, for Gods sakes! However, he did feel particularly emotional at seeing Piper, who was, to his shock, heavily pregnant, and knowing that he hadn't been there for her and her family. He'd been sulking.

"Yeh, Piper. I wanted to talk to you. May I?" Darryl gestured inside.

Piper nodded eagerly. "Of course! Come in."

She stepped aside, and felt immense relief that she finally had a friend to help her through this unbearable time.

Xx

_Slowly, Phoebe, Paige and Leo came back to themselves, and stood for a second, disorientated. Their minds struggled to become in sync with their bodies once again, but when they finally did, they were shocked to see that they were not alone in the Memory Bank. Chris- their Chris, no longer a child- was stood before them, arms folded across his chest, glaring at all three of the guilty individually._

_"What did you do?" He said, his anger slowly melting into concern as he saw the pain and devastation etched onto his families faces._

_None of the three could answer._

_Leo stared at his son, mouth agape, his mind's cogs slowly reeling, working up a smoke. All Chris' hatered; the anger; the cold stares; the singling out for utter ressentment. It finaly made sense to Leo. It was all because of that moment. Of what a monster Leo had been. His second son had needed him. His family had been dying before his young eyes, and he had called out for his father... And Leo hadn't come. It'd been difficult enough to know that he had let his son grow up in as dark and desolate a future as this, but with the knowledge that Leo had let Chris down in this way as well... He didn't think he could bare it. And still, Chris stood there, his eyes passing between his father and aunties with sympathy at how afraid they looked. Leo felt fit to vomit from the guilt that sent wave after wave of nausea over his entire body._

_Leo felt Phoebe place a hand on his shoulder. She knew that his emotional pain would be overwhelming at this point. Because, if hers was anything to go by, Leo must be dying on the inside. Phoebe had been shocked as hell to see her old and closest friend attack his son like that- and when he'd been through such hell just minutes before. It wasn't the Leo she knew at all. As she looked into her Leo's eyes, she saw they were vacant._

_"Umm, Chris, I think your Dad is gonna pass out or something..." A young woman with a pixi-cut poked a heart shaped head around Chris' shoulder, her eyebrow raised sky high._

_"It's alright, Bas, I got this." Chris said, and he tentatively stepped towards Leo, like he was a dangerous dog who needed to be handled with care. "Dad? You alright? How 'bout we sit down. What exactly was it you saw?"_

_Paige made a noise like a wounded animal and instantly captured all eyes attention. She struggled to overcome her inner torment to speak out loud. How could someone possibly speak when they'd not only discovered that her nearest and dearest had died-_

_would die- a horrific death, but that another nearest and dearest had caused it! And yet another neareast and dearest had whitnessed it, and suffered from it ever since. Seeing Chris as if for the first time, Paige took a deep breath to attempt to clear her mind. "Chris, what we saw... it was..."_

_"A battle." Leo interrupted. Everyone was shocked to see him quickly recover. Leo himself was wondering if his eyes betrayed what he really felt inside. "It was a big fight. Vague, but still, fairly graphic. Had us pretty shaken." Leo locked gazes with Phoebe and Paige's bewildered faces, daring them to say any different. "We'll be alright."_

_For a few seconds after he did it, Leo didn't understand completely why he'd lied. But when his mind was back on track, he realised; it was a way to protect his son. Like he'd failed to do on that fateful day. It wasn't much, but, for now, it was all Leo could do._

_"Honestly, we'll be alright." Leo repeated._

_Chris frowned at Leo, unconvinced. "Well, I still think you guys should sit down. If this was like any battle I've ever fought in, it'll have been unpleasent to say the least." Chris shuddered, and Phoebe ached to see the pain in his eyes. As always, however, it was quickly masked with an emotional cloak, acquired from years of practice. Phoebe could see that now. "Hey, no dragons though, that's a given! Wait...Bas, were there ever Dragons?" Chris turned to the young woman who'd accompanied him. Paige would've placed her as sixteen from a distracted side glance- the steely determination put naturally into her eyes and the sharp haircut added years to her. In reality, she was only just thirteen. _

_"Dragons? Not in battles, no." She answered, smiling wryly. "But there was a giant lizard once. And a giant parrot." The woman raised her eyebrow even higher. "That was a strange day."_

_"Yeh. Who knew Wyatt would be creative enough to turn a pet shop against us?" Chris scoffed, forgetting his family were there for a second. It'd been so long since he'd spoken to his cousin._

_Paige suddenly flinched as realisation hit her. She took a deep breath, trying hard not to choke on it._

_"Did... Did you say Bas? As in Bastina?"_

Xx

"So, what I'm really trying to say- Piper- is... I'm sorry." Darryl spoke, his gaze lifting from the floor to look into her hard, intense eyes. "I shouldn't have ran the moment things got tough. I knew what I was getting myself into when I became involved with this family- I chose to take that on."

Piper shook her head. "But, Darryl, you can't help us just because you feel you have to. That's not your responsibility."

"Piper, I want to. I may not have ever shown it, but helping you is... It makes me feel good to help. It's the whole reason I'm on the force; working towards the greater good is what gives me the motivation to live. You gave me that, and I wimped out. I won't wimp out on my friend again Piper. I promise you that."

Piper smiled for a second, glowing inside. Then, she shrugged, "Jeez, Darryl. It's just us." Piper stood and opened up her arms. "Watch the baby!" She said, before embracing Darryl, and he hugged back, glad to have made his peace.

"About that..." Darryl said as he pulled back.

Piper pulled an awkward face. "Yeh. He's Leo's."

"Leo's? But you guys... well... You're not together any more. Are you? Jeez, i've been gone longer than I thought."

"No, no, no, definately not! We're still very much apart. It was a slight..." Piper couldn't think of a way to describe the one night that all her held back feelings for Leo had come back in a flood. "... A slight relapse."

Darryl folded his arms across his chest and let out a deep breath, his eyes wide. "Oka-ay. Is there anything else I need to be caught up on? Do I need to brace myself?"

Piper put her heavy head to the ground, thinking about the last five, hellish months of her rapidly shattering life. She took a deep breath.

"Yes. I think you'd better."

Xx

_As Bastina spoke, Paige watched her lips move fluidly, as if in a trance. Her eyes were glued to the girls face; to the porceline skin so much like her own; to the thick, full lips that had a natural pout; to the brunette hair, so much like her own, except Bastinas' hair was cut short- pixie like- and the soft ends curled in to perfectly frame her heat shaped face. That was her daughter. Paige couldn't get over that fact. Neither could she get over the fact that she'd almost been lost. Paige couldn't express her gratitude to Chris at having preserved such a precious life._

_"... So, at a guess, it leaves us with two possible places the portal could be hidden. Either the Halliwell Manor, or Causa Mortis." Bas finished. She felt her mothers eyes resting on her more heavily than everyone elses, but she didn't mind at all. She'd always craved her mothers attention, and now she could finally get it. She'd decided to play it cool. That was after the teary hug, of course._

_"What's Causa Mortis?" Phoebe asked._

_"It's Wyatt's... prison." Bas said, although the look on her face told Leo, Phoebe and Paige that it was much more._

_Prue scoffed. "Well...it's really a torture house." Her eyes burned as she spoke in a hissing tone.. "Many of the Resistance have been taken to Causa Mortis and never heard of again. Either that, or they come out of it writhing mad. The place is entirely dedicated to finding out about us and our secrets. We should be flattered really." Prue deadpanned, her words dripping with loathing. Then she turned sad. "The only person known to survive that place with all screws attached is Chris."_

_All unknowing eyes whipped his way, and Chris seemed to shrink. Leo's heart gave an unbearable pang as Chris said. "We should cheak out the Manor first. It makes the most sense. Wyatt is really into his meaningful actions. It's one of the reasons he keeps the Manor as a shrine, though he'd never admit it." Chris winced suddenly. "And anyway, I'd like to avoid... that place... at all costs. So..." He looked up for confirmation. "The Manor?"_

_Prue tried to give her family looks of confermation, but no-one exept Bas returned her gaze. Paige was in some sort of self induced trance, passing adoring looks between Bas and Chris, seeming unable to comprehend them being sat before her. Phoebe was intensely scrutinising Chris, and, if Prue knew her baby sister like she thought she did, she'd guess that she was trying to see through his emotional barrier. Prue sighed. She was wasting her efforts. And Leo... well, Leo was gone._

_Chris and Bastina twisted to Prue with questioning looks. "What the hell has gotten into them?" Bas asked, concerned._

_Prue shrugged. "Lets go work on a disguises so we can get inside the Manor."_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

_The Manor of the future was nothing like Leo expected. Not that he'd known quite what to expect. But this was just... weird._

_The home that he was so used to seeing alive with colour had a dull tint to it, like it was of another dimension. All that was left of the Manor was a shell. One that people eyed greedily, as if by doing so a minute piece of the immense power that had once inhabited this grand, murdered corpse might flow into them. They had no hope of that. Any power that had once livened these halls had been sucked out, to be put to evil use; these pitiful halls and dutifully organised rooms were all that was left of the Halliwell Manor. Leo fought to prevent the emotion from infiltrating his eyes; instead, he struggled to echo the expressions of intrigue and envy that were plastered on the faces of his tour group. An array of demons from the general public surrounded Leo, Paige, Phoebe and Chris. However, with their new faces, they blended in perfectly._

_The group stood in the hallway, having just come through the main entrance, and stood scrutinising the living room, listening to a lecture that an overenthusiastic blonde woman was giving, her arms gesturing wildly. Leo struggled to think over her incessant voice._

_"In this room, the Charmed Ones and their beloved Whitelighter would speak, discussing topics from the latest threat to their way of life, to simple sociable chats. However, this room was home to much more intense goings on. Being the main room in the house, many a battle would commence here, and uncountable events causing collateral damage took place. Woven into the very fabric of these deceivingly homely walls are, the screams of a thousand demons and warlocks, who met their ends at the Charmed Ones powerful hands in this-very-room-"_

_A thousand? Paige wondered if that was a real statistic or just an off the tounge statement to be dramatic. Because she was willing to bet it was way, way over a thousand. But it'd be nice to know._

_Paige flicked her eyes towards a tall, impossibly slim and slightly gangly woman who was stood, towering above her peers in the corner of the group. Phoebe, who was feeling slightly self-conscious in her disguise, returned Paige's gaze, and the girls both rolled their eyes, Paige flicking her electric blue hair in annoyance. This woman just wouldn't shut up..._

_"And, with that, we move on the the Halliwell Manor kitchen, where- trust you me- a lot more than mere cooking went on." The woman jumped eagerly in said direction, and the crowd began to follow. "Now, Piper had a love of cooking. In fact, her and her youngest son Christopher would spend hours here, baking..."_

_Her voice thankfully faded away, and four people of the crowd hovered towards eachother; Phoebe with her gangly limbs; Paige with her chubby face and electric blue hair; Leo, with his surfers style and casual gait; and Chris, hidden behind endless layers of tattoos and bulging muscles. Chris lifted a finger and flicked it, sending a floating security camera spinning in another direction. Then, he watched the rest of the group walk away._

_"C'mon. Now's our chance." Chris whispered, turning for the stairs. His family followed._

_At the top of the stairs, Chris put his back against the wall. Someone was guarding the stairway to the attic, as expected. No problem. Chris lifted his hand (scowling at the unattractive snake tattoo traveling down it), and clenched his fist. The guards face suddenly went very red, and he fell to his knees, clawing at his neck. It only took a few seconds for him to explode silently, his screams trapped in his throat along with his oxygen._

_Gesturing for his patiently waiting family to follow, Chris bound up the steps to the attic. Once there, he made for the holographic image of the Book of Shadows that lay where the real thing was supposed to be, on the stand._

_Phoebe, Paige and Leo watched as he muttered the spell that would bring back what was rightfully theirs._

_Instantly, the holagraphic image of the Book materialised into the real thing, and Chris let out a sigh of relief. He jumped slightly when it came out as a low growl._

_"Sorry." He said to his startled family apologetically. "New face. New voice."_

_"Okay," said the woman who was Paige (but wasn't), as she approached Chris, "where's the spell we're looking for?" She began to flick through the Book, her eyes diligently scanning._

_"Ah-ha! Here it is!" She hit the page triumphantly. "Okay, let's get this over with. Find and destroy that damn portal so we can get back in our own bodies. And have our own hair back." Paige grabbed at her hair. "This straw is dyed to death. I'd never mistreat hair so badly!"_

_"Paige? Can we focus on the task at hand please?" Chris said, eyebrows raised. "If it makes you feel any better, I think your hair matches really nicely with your out-fit." Chris sniggered, looking down at Paiges luminescent pink, frilly skirt and tightly drawn purple corset. Phoebe chuckled._

_Paige shot Chris a _look_, which he interpreted as 'one more word, and you die.'_

_Chris focused once again on the Book. "C'mon. I know it's not exactly the Power of Three, but it'll do. Let's go for it."_

_Phoebe, Paige and Chris gathered around, as Leo moved to watch the door. The three witches read from the book in a confident chant._

_"_Portal that eludes us,

Hidden in the air,

We wish to know your hiding place,

Show us where"

_The room was still as the withces paused._

_Seconds ticked wordlessly by._

_"Well?" Chris said, getting flustered. "Where is the portal?"_

_"Oh no. It must not be in the Manor at all." Phoebe said, leaning into the book. "It says here that the spell only works when the readers are in at least a fifty meter radius._

_"Damn it! I've been walking around in this body for nothing!" Paige whined._

_"I like the style. Kinda punky." Leo admitted from the doorway. "But that doesn't matter. We need to leave. But we can't orb in or out of here, so we have a problem."_

_"Find the tour group." Chris stated, his voice wavering.. He put a beefy hand in his bikers jacket and pulled out a pen, quickly jotting down the spell. For some strange reason, his hands were shaking. He'd gone a deathly pale and, being bald, it was all the more noticeable._

_Phoebe was the first to guess what was wrong. Chris had figured out that if the portal wasn't here, it was at the torture place, Causa Mortis. Phoebe winced for Chris. _No-one should have to ever suffer that way. Ever._ Phoebe thought, looking into Chris' young, burdened eyes. "You alright, Chris?"_

_Before Chris could even part his lips to answer, alarms sounded about the Manor. Red lights from somewhere in the walls flashed with every whine of the siren. Great. Chris knew this'd been too easy._

_Suddenly, Chris snapped his head round. There was a shower of dark light, and three Darklighters appeared in the attic, tensed and ready to attack. As one aimed his arrow at Leo, he reacted quickly with a forceful punch in the nose and kick in the groin. In one fluid motion, Leo rose from the kick and swiftly struck the two remaining Darklighters with his Elder powers, catapulting them across the room wrapped in buzzing electrical currents._

_"Oh! The Elder kicks ass!" Chris quipped, closing the book and running with his aunts to get a piece of the action._

_Raising her arms, Paige cried, "Arrow!" At her words, a Darklighter groaned, his own arrow sticking from his gut and blood spluttering from his mouth. Phoebe kicked him down brutally for good measure._

_A recovered Darklighter violently swung his cross-bow at Phoebe, knocking her down with force. She crashed to the floor and lay still, moaning._

_"Phoebe!" Chris called, and lunged, arms raised, to hit Phoebe's attacker with telekinesis. He never got the chance._

_As Chris rose his wrist, an arrow shot into it, embedding it into the wall behind him. No sooner had that happened than another shot into his forearm, sending crippling pains like electricity up his arms. Chris cried with pain as his vision swiftly began to blur._

_"Chris!" Leo yelled in horror as he ducked to avoid a Darklighters high swinging foot._

_The Darklighter that struck Chris snarled as he let off another arrow. Chris yelped as his other wrist was pinned to the wall by two arrows in a shower if blood, which splattered Phoebe where she lay, unmoving. Chris stood ridgidly against the wall, his head spinning. A harrowing moan escaped his lips when the thought of his dead cousin flashed before his mind, her savaged corpse pinned as he was now._ What cruel irony_, Chris managed to think through the pain._

_Leo rushed to his son, his eyes wild, only to be knocked down by a his own assailant. Hard. The edge of the cross-bow hit him in the temple, and Leo felt a foot crush his head as he lay on the floor. He was powerless against the Darklighters heavy, steel-lined boot._

_Leo raised his eyes to search for his son. Chris was swaying now, his wrists and arms taking all the weight that his legs were too weak to manage. Next to him, Phoebe lay, and Leo's hopes were dashed when he saw that, although concious, her eyes were bleary and Darklighter was holding her down. Paige was in no better shape. A Darklighter had her by the hair. Her face was contorted in a wince, and blood ran from her nose._

_Suddenly, the disguses left them. The beefy brute morphed back into Chris, who cried out as his arms got shorter and the strain got unbearabley worse. The gangly lady, her limbs sprawled on the floor, became Phoebe once again. The Darklighter holding Paige found he grasped a fistful of strawberry-red where there had been blue, and he smiled triumphantly. Leo cursed. How had their simple plan gone so completely wrong?_

_Leo licked his dry lips to speak weakly. "What..."_

_"What happened, you want to know?" A chilling voice spoke from the doorway in a menacing tone. Leo's blood froze in his veins at the cruelty the voice seemed to radiate. "I happened." The man said humourlessly. "I took away your masking spell. I thought it'd be nice to look my family in the eyes. Their real eyes."_

_Upon saying this, the owner of the voice stepped into view. The tall, lean man was dressed head to toe in black, and the demenor with which he carried himself told Leo that he didn't think any fancy-dress was needed to complete his look. He was right. This man didn't require dramatics as the Nightmare demon had. Nor did he need cross-bows or knives. The power seemed to seep from the mans very pores and swirl in his deep blue eyes. Very familiar deep blue eyes..._

_"Who _the hell_ are you?" Paige spat with contempt, holding her scalp as it threatened to be ripped from her head._

_"Antie Paige, surely you must recognise me?" The man spoke, turning to her so that Leo could only see the back of his head, his disheveled blonde hair. Blond hair... Blue eyes..._

Auntie_ Paige..._

_"Wyatt!" Leo said, hating the words even as he spoke them with conviction. Leo knew instantly that he was right._

_Wyatt span to face his father, and his face seemed to twitch, like a reaction to a flash of pain. It wasn't. It was a twisted, disturbed smile._

Xx

Piper sat on the sofa, cold tea in hand. She was curled up (as curled up as she could manage with her massive stomach) on the sofa, sniffing pitifully. Her eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot, and her cheeks blood-red too. From the many times she'd wiped them. She pulled her sleeve and wiped her nose, taking another huge sniff.

Piper was so ashamed that she'd done it. What she told herself she would definately _not do_. But she hadn't been able to fight it any longer. Piper had finally broken down. Sure, Darryl had been great to have around. He'd been so caring, coming to the Manor almost every day to help Piper manage Wyatt, and even do little tasks that, being heavily pregnant, Piper couldn't do. He'd mowed the lawn. He'd helped clean the house. He'd even aided Piper in a few of her demon bashing missions. But now, things were overwhelming Piper, and not even Darryl could take away the pain.

A few days? Fine. Weeks? Sure. But _months_? _Eight_ months- her family had been gone, and Piper had no idea where! Now, Piper was on the verge of giving birth- it was just under a month until little Chris was due- and she was close to admitting defeat. She had to imagine a world with her, her two babies, and no one else. As this thought passed her mind again, Pipers heaving sobs began to return, sending sharp pains through her already aching back.

"Hey, hey, hey! Piper, not this again." Darryl rushed over, quickly placing the freshly made, hot tea on the table. He placed a hand on Pipers. "Please don't cry again, Piper. Think of the baby." Darryl soothed.

Piper took deep breaths at Darryls command, but whene she spoke, sobs interrupted her constantly.

"I-I'm sorry Da-Darryl... I ca- I ca-" Piper stopped and caught her breath, loathing how weak and helpless she was acting. But the stress and worry of all the months spent waiting had finally caught up with her.

_No_, she thought. _Get a hold of yourself woman!_

"You alright now?" Darryl asked softly.

"Darryl..." Piper began, sniffing. "I think it's safe to say that there never coming back. I mean, how could they now? After it's been so- so long. I-I don't thi-" Piper began to choke up again.

"Hey, hey, hey... Piper, I hate to see you like this." Darryl sat and put Pipers head on his shoulder, letting her cry into it. "But, listen, if there is one thing I've learnt about your family, it's that nothing ever means the end for you. And I'm serious! Every predicament, every situation, it's always overcome!"

"But..." Piper choked.

"But nothing. Piper, just because this problem is dragged out, doesn't mean it's the end. This is a time travel problem. Which means time is messed up! They may be a little late, but they'll be here. You wait. Just you wait." This, he continued to repeat, as if to persuade both Piper and himself. He didn't stop whispering the words. They became like a prayer. "Just you wait."

Suddenly, the walls around them began to glow, as if the entire Manor were a torch. Piper and Darryl were dazzled as the house retained it's glow for a few seconds. Then, the light dulled. The walls became normal again.

"What the hell just happened?" Piper screeched, lifting her head.

"Oh, excuse me. I just happened." A voice chimed apologetically from behind them.

Piper and Darryl whipped their heads back to see Gideon stood by Wyatts play-pen. But the little boy wasn't inside it. He was in Gideon's arms, staring innocently into his mothers wide eyes. Gideon's eyes, on the other hand, looked sad.

"I'm truley sorry to put you in this situation. Really, I am." Gideon sounded strangely genuine, locking his gaze with Pipers. "I assure you, it is for the Greater Good."

Piper cursed loudly, tears streaming form her eyes, and Darryl lurched to tackle Gideon to the ground. But, to Pipers great devestation, Darryl simply threw himself into empty space. Gideon was gone.

"Darryl, he took Wyatt! _He took my baby_!" Piper screamed, clutching her stomach as if it were the only thing left worth living for.

Darryl blinked.

"Piper..." He mused, his brain chugging, "the house... It was glowing. Could he have..." His eyes suddenly went wide. "_No_..."

Darryl fled to the window and used all his force to try and swing it open. He couldn't.

"No way..." He muttered.

Piper screamed and whipped her hands, attempting to explode the window. She couldn't.

Darryl could try to open the front door. He could try hurling his body against it to force it open. He could even tell Piper to use her magicy-stuff on it. But he didn't bother. It was obvious already that all attempts would prove futile.

Piper wimpered as it all became clear; pieces of the jigsaw came cluttering into place. Chris had said Wyatt would be turned before he himself was born. Now, everything was beginning to make sense. Who'd helped Leo make the potion? Who was so close and trusted that he was above suspicion? Piper wanted to scream with self-hatred.

Gideon. He had Wyatt somewhere outside of the Manor. And Piper was trapped _inside_ it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

_Leo stared up in incomprehension at the evil, warped man that towered over him, his face showing twisted delight in his fathers pain and fury. And this was his son? Leo struggled futilely, wanting so much to punch Wyatt in his smug face and watch the evil _ping_ out from the force. But, unfortunately, magic didn't work that way. It was much crueller._

_"Huh. My father, in the flesh." Wyatt kicked the Darklighters foot from Leo's head so that he himself could kick it about, revelling in his power. Wyatt scrutinised Leo as he glared up at him. He snarled. "Pathetic."_

_Leo would have made a snarky reply, but he was kicked in the mouth as soon as his lips started to twitch._

_"Ah, Chris, now here is a face that I always love to see!" Wyatt stepped over to where Chris stood, gasping for breath, Darklighter arrows pinning him on the wall, poisoning him at the same time, so that he hung awkwardly, like a rag doll._

_"Wyatt, no!" Paige cried._

_"Get away from him!" Leo spat, getting another swift kick for his trouble._

_"Jeez, Dad, calm the temper! I only want to talk to my brother. I'd never hurt him." He smiled slightly. "Not directly." He stepped towards Chris, and took his rolling head into his hand. Leo was sickened by Wyatt's need to show dominance over everyone- even his own little brother._

_"Now Chris..." Wyatt began. But didn't finish._

_An uneasy silence held. The Darklighters began to shift uneasily, passing confused looks. Chris stared into Wyatts eyes, inches from his own, as the man spluttered and spat, trying to make words come from his mouth but failing miserably. Wyatt stepped back and brought a surprised hand to his lips. His face had flushed crimson with humiliation. Suddenly, he turned to Chris, and mouthed the word '_You_'._

_"Hey Wyatt..." Chris said, a shaky smirk on his face. "I'm done talking."_

_With great effort, Chris shakily lifted his chin. The effect was instant. Wyatt flew back with a grunt and crashed into the Darklighter holding Leo; their crumbled bodies were flung into the back wall, entangled._

_Leo jumped up, and was just about to yell for Prue... But damn. No orbing in or out. They were on their own._

_Before Wyatt could recover, Leo smashed a Darklighters face with a vengeful right-hook, and Paige fell free, holding her aching head. The Darklighter had crumpled to the ground, knocked unconscious by the pure force of the punch. Seething with a pained fathers rage, Leo turned his fury to the Darklighter restricting Phoebe._

_Leo raised his eyebrow, where a trickle of blood trailed into his mouth. He spat blood. "Just you left?"_

_Hearing this, the Darklighters eyes widened and he wimped out, fading into nothingness in a shower of midnight blue lights._

_Meanwhile, Phoebe had managed to force one of the arrows from Chris' arm. She was sobbing as she struggled to pull out another, murmuring apologies desperately, as if they would take the pain away. Chris seemed oblivious._

_Phoebe was unaware of anything around her as she tended to Chris, but Wyatt had began to stagger to his feet. He noticed he was a man down._

_"Coward!" He yelled at his remaining Darklighters. "Leave! Go and get me back up!"_

_Wyatt instantly set off like a bull to a red flag, his eyes narrowed at his father. Paige reacted fast._

_"Carpet!" She yelled._

_Wyatt fell head over heels as the carpet violently shifted underneath him. His head smashed to the ground._

_Leo took the opertunity as soon as it came; he jumped onto his son, elbow first, aiming straight for the gut. The breath was knocked out of Wyatt's lungs in a second. Now he was angry. Wyatt began to mercilessly pummel punches onto his father, as he tried to weakly resist._

_Paige left Leo and Wyatt to scuffle on the floor like wild animals. Father and son at war. Paige almost gave a motherly 'tut'._

_"Paige! Help him..." Phoebe said as she pulled out the last hateful arrow from Chris' arm, blood spurting out as if from a water-gun._

_"Holy hell" Paige cried as she let Chris flop into her arms. She could have sworn that he was tones lighter than he had been._

_Taking Chris over their shoulders, ignoring the blood that soaked their clothes, Phoebe and Paige ran across the room, avoiding the pair fighting out their anger on the floor. Chris' feet dragged behind them, but still they ran, straight out of the room and down the stairs. Then, they came to a sudden halt._

_Stood on the stairs before them were a crowd of Darklighters and demons, bloking their path. Their evil eyes bore into the girls' with grim satisfaction of their triumph, knuckles clicking, throats vibrating with growls._

_Phoebe looked at Paige squarely. "I count 7."_

_Paige thought about this for a second. "Huh. I guess I've faced worse in my own home."_

_Paige carefully passed all of Chris' weight to Phoebe, who held him tenderly, as Paige stepped forward, arms raised._

_"Please, try not to get your bloody remains on our walls. The effort'd be much appreciated"_

Xx

"Holy..." Piper swore repeatedly, pacing back and forth with a force she'd never paced with before.

"Gideon! The threat was _Gideon_ all this time!" Piper screamed, and Daryll, sat with his head in his hands on the attic sofa, winced at her shriek. "Chris would've never seen that! That's just not fair... we were looking for demons! Not a close family friend!" She snapped her head round, glaring at Darryl. "Do you know how hard we worked killing all those demons! Chris' life revolved around it, for God's sakes... And now we find out that the prat has been walking about under our noses this entire time, being all high and mighty, stupid Elder that he is." Piper's eyes were wide, like a mad-woman's, and she shot their insane look at Darryl, who nodded vigorously in agreement so as not to anger the raging woman further.

Piper raced over to the window wildly. She began to violently shake the window. which only creaked and jittered in response. It didn't budge.

Energy finaly spent, Piper rested her head on the window and cried.

"Chris, hurry home." She ignored Darryls hand, which had come to rest on her shoulder. She was faraway, thinking about her youngest son, who'd gone through so much to change the future, and how all his efforts might be wasted. And it would be all her fault. She'd let Gideon pluck her son from her grasp, when she was supposed to be his mother. His protector. The one responsible for him and whatever he does or will do. "Oh God. Things are playing out just as they're supposed to. Wyatt will be turned and the future will be unchanged. Unless they come back... God, Daryl, when are they coming back...?"

Piper didn't see Daryll shake his head dejectedly. It was lucky she hadn't. She wouldn't have been able to take it.

Taking a deep breath, Piper stood once again, and resumed her pacing back and forth.

"What are you doing?" Darryl shook his head at her, disbelievingly.

Piper sighed. "Time isn't going to kill itself, Darryl."

Xx

_"I don't want them to leave." Prue whined to her niece, who nodded sadly in agreement. "When they leave, we're just gonna have to miss them all over again."_

_Bas shrugged. "Might not make a difference. I mean, when Chris changes the future, all this will change anyway. We won't remember."_

_Prue folded her arms across her chest, sighing. "Yeh, I guess you're right. I'm still utterly confused about how that'll even work. Messing with time... It's just mind boggling!"_

_"Best not to think about it." Bas grinned wryly. "Otherwise we'll all go mad before we can finish what we started."_

_Prue smiled, and for a moment, she thought about what the changed future would men for her. No longer existing. Magic worked in strange ways, and cruel ways. It was cruel how she could only live as a Whitelighter when the Power of Three was destroyed. While her sisters lived, Prue couldn't. Only when they died could she return to the world, meaning she could never be with them._

_Prue shook such morbid thoughts from her mind. She'd missed her chance for happiness when she'd gone and died. It had been difficult, but over time, she'd come to accept that she had to sacrifice herself for the world. Chris was basically doing the same. Thinking about Chris..._

_"Hey, where's Chris and the others? Surely the job couldn't be taking this long."_

_"Prue, do you reaslise you've been asking that every five minutes since they left? Calm down. If the portal's there, nothing can go wrong."_

_If the portal's there. Oh no..._

_Just as Prue had jumped to her feet in realisation, blue lights began to swirl before her eyes. She gasped._

_Paige and Phoebe appreared before her, holding Chris between them. All three were pretty soaked in blood, but it was obvious the blood was Chris' by the way his body was limp and his skin pale._

_"Prue, help. Quickly..." Phoebe gasped, and Prue quickly obliged, taking Chris and settling him onto the floor. Prue gasped at the bloody wounds on his arms._

_"What happened?" Prue cried, placing her palm above Chris' arms, sending a healing warmth to them._

_"Wyatt came." Phoebe said, stroking Chris forehead, tears springing from her eyes. "He was... I had no idea."_

_"No idea? How could we have any clue as to what a monster we'd created. We're the Charmed Ones! The worlds closest siblings! How could we raise a man capable of doing this to his own brother, to his family.." Paige continued to ramble, as was her habit when she was shocked (or nervous, or on to something. In fact, she rambled in just about any situation.)_

_"... and Leo just went mental and started beating him up, and we just left them like that, fighting up a storm on the floor, because we couldn't stay to help while Chris was..."_

_"Shhh..." Prue soothed, and the sound seemed to wash over Paige like a trickling stream. She took a deep breath and calmed. She knelt by Chris, who, although healed, didn't wake._

_"What's happening?" Phoebe asked._

_"He's lost a lot of blood. He just needs to rest up." Prue said, orbing away with Chris instantly. Phoebe and Paige both blinked._

_"Where..." Paige began._

_"To a sofa. Who knows where. For some reason, we don't have much furnisher. I guess it never seemed all that important. Y'know, in the big scheme of things."_

_Everyone nodded, understanding. Seconds later, Prue orbed back into the conference room._

_"He's alright I guess. I left him to sleep." Prue shook her head. "And now we have another problem. Wyatt has Leo."_

_"Where would they have taken him?" Paige asked._

_"Take a wild guess." Bas said, staring angrily at nothing in particular._

_For Phoebe, it instantly clicked. "Oh... That place." She said, referring to Causa Mortis. The place of torture where Chris had been held. Phoebe shivered and clawed at her arms, as if a freezing cold had descended on her skin all of a sudden._

_"Mhm." Prue nodded to conferm, her eyes smouldering. "And the portal must be there, too. So it's inevitable now that we go there. Much as we would rather not."_

_"Jeez, why are we all in such a rush. We have to find out where the portal is first, don't we?" Bas quipped._

_"How do we do that?" Paige asked. "We're at a dead end! Y'know, I used to have an open mind..."_

_"But your brain kept falling out?" Bas smirked, giggling at her own jokes. She stopped when all eyes met hers with annoyance. "Sorry." She attempted a smile. But... It's alright. We can find out where it is."_

_"How?" Phoebe asked._

_"Knowing Wyatt, how organised he is, he'd have a room for everything. One for potion making, one for general relaxation, one for mindless torture... Stands to reason he'd have one set aside for portals of all types. He uses them a lot, doesn't he? Not this type, generally, but he is always creating portals."_

_"Oka-ay..." Prue thought for a second. "SO?"_

_"So-o... Who do we know..." Bas paused, stuttering. "Sorry, I- I mean, who _did_ we know who knew her way around Causa Mortis? Who used to _work_ there?"_

_"Pass." Paige said dryly._

_Prue stood up, grinning from ear to ear. "Of course! Bianca! We go into the Memory Bank and take a walk around the place in her shoes. Simple."_

_Phoebe and Paige both shook their heads. "Oh no, no, no, no. No, no no no. Seriously, no. No no. Not another memory. I'm still reeling over the last one. Is this one going to be horrible too?!" Paige whined._

_Prue thought about it. "Erm... Possibly." She raised an eyebrow. "Probably not enough for eleven no's. Eight, maybe?"_

_Paige's mouth was slack. That wasn't exactly the straight forward answer she'd hoped for. But she behaved herself and settled for muttering a sarcastic "That sounds like a great idea," rather than the yells she'd wanted to ruthlessly sling._

_"Thanks." Bas quipped._

_"Hey, she who has the heart to help has the right to criticise."_

_Prue looked Paige squarely in the eyes. "Okay, what do you suggest?"_

_Paige thought for a second. "A hot bath?"_

_Prue sighed. Her and Bastina stepped over to the large, metal door in the corner of the room. The way they ambled towards it was faulted and reluctant, as if it were the opposite end of a magnet, rejecting them._

_"Okay." Prue stated. "Memory Bank it is."_


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

**_The purple fog that had overwhelmed them was slowly clearing, swirling away into the images that began to reveal themselves; images of darkness and demons and cold, narrow corridors which curved rather than turned sharply. Prue, Phoebe, Paige and Bas found themselves looking over one such corridor, gradually moving, as if hovering over it, at the same pace as the girl who was striding purposefully down it._**

**_"There she is!" Prue called out triumphantly, her voice penetrating the silence._**

**_"Jesus, she looks about fourteen!" Phoebe exclaimed with horror._**

**_"Thirteen here, I think" Bas said sadly. "Y'know, she's kinda creeping me out." She pointed out, watching the dauntless way in which the girl strode, her eyes set as if locked on a victim before her._**

**_"Hmm..." Prue agreed, "she was pure evil Phoenix back then. Born and raised."_**

**_"Not _****pure****_ evil. She never, _****ever****_ was. Just watch" Bas instructed._**

**_Bianca flicked her sharp hair as she turned a tightly curved corner, and then another. These corridors were odd, and Bianca travelled the snakes path without comment, until she reached a door, and entered._**

**_"Lord Wyatt? You called?" Bianca spoke to the blonde man who's lean body was curled into a small armchair, legs spilling over one arm-rest, shoes kicked off._**

**_"I did. I need you to perform a special task for me." Wyatt's eyes shone misheviously. "Take prisoner 2001 his dinner for me, would you?" He said, flicking his finger over to the plate of stale bread that sat on an old fashioned coffee table to his left._**

**_Bianca's eyes visibly widened, and a smile of pride played upon her lips, intruding her cruel demeoner. For some reason, Lord Wyatt held this particular prisoner in the highest regard, and only allowed his favourite demons to attend to him. Every demon working at Causa Mortis fought for this honour. Bianca was over the moon._**

**_"2001?" She repeated, as if unable to believe it. "Yes, Sir. Of course."_**

**_She picked up the plate as if a feast for a king was spread on it. Blinking to regain her composure, she turned to leave._**

**_"Bianca?" Wyatt stopped her._**

**_Still holding the door she'd opened, Bianca turned._**

**_Wyatt smiled as if his job, morbid as it was, gave him the greatest of joys. "I will ask this of you more and more in coming months. You've probably guessed that this is a promotion. You know what you'll be expected to do. Tend to 2001 and, additionally, join the Res Hunters."_**

**_Bianca twitched, as if resisting the urge to jump for joy at her brilliant luck._**

**_Wyatt continued. "If you please me in how you perform, there may be a further promotion in it for you. I've been more than pleased with your work so far." Wyatt's smile widened still. The silent watchers thought that it looked painful. "Mind you, don't let emotions take over as others have. In the past, people assigned to this job have been most unsatisfactory."_**

**_Bianca nodded and made a hasty escape, walking through the corridor once again. She knew the stories of the prison guards who had looked after 2001. For some reason, they had all been turned. Apparently, if rumours were true, the prisoner held hopes for a better future; some sort of alternate reality- a utopia- so it was told. Demons had been enticed by this, and began to conspire, so had had to be... fired. But not Bianca. No-one could turn her for the world. No-one._**

**_The intruiged watchers eyes followed Bianca stopped walking to stand before a huge door. It seemed to be larger than other doors, and no demon except her was going into it. Phoebe spotted a few demons eyeing the door nervously as Bianca approached it. A red light scanned her eyes, and Bianca didn't even twitch as it did. Then, the door gradually opened, shaking the floor as it did so._**

**_The door opened to an extremally wide corridor, darker and seemingly more sinister than the others. A petrifying sound that escaped through the open door made the disturbed watchers blood run cold. Bianca ignored the painstaking scream and stepped through the door. She only winced slightly as it shuddered behind her. She couldn't admit that this was her favourite place. She had a pretty thick skin, being a Phoenix, but still, what went on behind the doors she was walking past did make her legs go slightly weak. Bianca eyed the blood streaked on the floor, shivering. But she straitened her spine and strode on. She ignored the blood-sodden demons who passed her. Although she did notice that as one smiled evilly her way, a splatter of blood had caught on his yellowing tooth. She grimaced._**

**_Bianca passed many rooms marked with many different names. Some were self-explanatory, whereas others got Bianca thinking. _****'The Electric Room'. 'The Drip Room'. 'The Swing Room'. 'The Furnace'.**

**_However, as she walked further and further, the doors became sparser, and the walls became tighter and tighter, and the agonisingly pitiful screams became further and further away. Demons stopped passing. Around 20 minutes down the corridor (the horrifically long corridor. Horrific taking all into account, anyway) her shoulders were close to touching the walls, and she came to a small door, marked_**

**_2001, which she stopped at. Bianca felt her heart flutter. She was finally going to find out who prisoner 2001 was! Would it be an uncovered Resistance spy who she'd recognise? Maybe even a kidnaped Resistance Leader? Taking a deep breath, Bianca let her newly recognisable eyes be scanned. Bianca was filled with an intoxicating feeling of pride mixed sickeningly with trepidation. She didn't know whether the feeling was pleasant or unsettling. Nevertheless, Bianca opened the door._**

**_Just as the terrified watchers eyes went wide, so did Bianca's. Prisoner 2001 was a boy. As young as she herself was. Bianca stepped forward, the plate shaking precariously in her hands._**

**_He was lead on a stone slab at the end of the room, which was as covered in blood as the boy was. His body was covered in bruises and burns, particularly his hands, which looked scalded. That and the bloody cut all the way around his neck told Bianca exactly what kind of torture he'd been subjected to. _****'The Swing Room'****_ came to mind. Of course, none of this was unusual. But this was just a boy. A child. _**

**_Despite her disgust, Bianca kept to her duty. She strode to the slab and placed down the bread. The boy opened his eyes just enough to regard it longingly, but he didn't move._**

**He's waiting for me to leave. Stupid dignity... ****_She thought._**

**_Bianca span to exit._**

**_"No water then, I guess?" The boy croaked, and when Bianca turned, he was half sat up, proped onto his elbow, looking at her squarely in the eyes. Bianca thought that they were very handsome eyes. The sort of deep, green eyes that you could sink into. And his face, although splattered with bruises, wasn't at all ugly. _****Quite the opposite****_, Bianca thought._**

**_"No water." Bianca snapped, as was her habit when prisoners asked for such things. Then, she sighed and said in a sweet voice, "sorry about that."_**

**_Bianca winced immediately._**

**Sorry about that?****_ Where the hell had that come from? They weren't running a five star hotel. He wasn't a guest she was serving! She was supposed to be sinister._**

**_"Not sorry. I-I mean." Bianca stuttered, blushing._**

**_To her disdain, the boy chuckled at her discomfort._**

**_"Oh, just..." She stuttered again. "Eat your stale bread. And don't go asking for butter."_**

**_He shrugged his skinny shoulders. "Now that you mention it..."_**

**_Bianca huffed and span out of the room, letting her hair fan out. As she slammed the door, she heard the boy call out a 'Thank you'. As she walked away, she scoffed. She didn't realise she was smiling a little. Only the silent watchers did, and they smiled too. And then, they began to splutter and choke..._**

**_...Purple fog began to cloud their sights and choke them..._**

_...And then the metal of the Memory Bank returned, and everyone looked at each other._

_Prue had to fight to find her breath. But when she did, she yelled: "What was that, I didn't see a portal room? Was that relevant to anything?" she cried, folding her arms and eyeing Bas, who shuffled guiltily._

_"Oops. Wrong one," She shrugged giving a wry smile._

_"Great. That was just... Great." Prue threw her arms out in annoyance._

_Phoebe and Paige seemed to be in a daze. "Aww, was that how they met?" Phoebe asked._

_Bas was looking through the shelves of potions, ducking her head behind them. She spoke as she looked._

_"Yeh. She tended to him for his last year. They grew on each other. A lot, obviously, since they got engaged. In fact, she's how Chris escaped. She helped him. It took a while, of course, but she became a link between Causa Mortis and the Resistance. She was able to not only turn demons but even get moles in there. Even Darryl! They conspired and, eventually left together, and Wyatt's been seething with rage about it since" Bas turned, two potions in her hands. "Y'know, Wyatt brought it on himself. Great plan it was to send the lonely teenage boy a pretty, equally lonely teenage girl to keep him company. Duh... He's not as smart as he likes to think he is. He's all muscle." Then, Bas looked at the potions in her hands, eyebrows raised. "Now, it's defiantly one of these."_

_"Bas..." Prue growled._

_"Okay..." Bas thought for a second, then thrust a hand forward. "This one!"_

_"You sure?" Prue asked._

_"Erm..." Bas thought. "Yes. Yeh, I really think so. If the things Bianca told me are right, she opens a portal for them all to escape through."_

_"Then let's go for it." Paige said, grabbing the potion from Bas' hand. Without further ado, she threw it onto the floor._

_As the purple fog began to billow from the shattered glass, the great metal door opened. Chris looked curiously in. He saw the purple fog._

_"Oh no, Chris..." Bas cried as Chris began to choke and splutter along with the rest of them, fog going up his nose and wrapping around his eyes..._

_...They were all consumed once again by the odd fog..._

_...__**And soon the gang were looking over the familiar room of prisoner 2001, and a new pair of eyes watching widened to see the scene...**_

**_"Chris," a disembosied voice yelled. "Are you there?"_**

**_He was, but he didn't answer Prue's worried cries. He was transfixed._**

**_Chris and Bianca were older in this scene, and not only that had changed during the time. Chris had become worse. His state was indescribable- it looked as if he'd been put in a blender. All that remained of Chris was a savaged skeleton. Bianca had his head on her lap and was putting water into his thin, pale lips. Tears trickled down her flushed cheeks and her eyes were dark and withered, as if she'd aged a thousand years in just one with the strain of heart-break._**

**_"Come on Chris. You have to try." She sniffed, pouring more water in. Chris gulped weakly._**

**_"There you go." Bianca said, and kissed his forehead._**

**_For a moment she kept her lips there, and it was as if she'd fallen asleep. Then, her body suddenly heaved with a quick sob. Then another._**

**_"Chris..." She said brokenly. "I don't care what you say anymore, I'm doing it today. We've waited and planned too long. They're ready for us there, at the Resistance. Their messages are urging us to make a move. Why are you still saying no?" Bianca asked, but her expression told the watchers that she knew the answer already._**

**_"D- It's too dangerous..." Chris said with urgency._**

**_"I don't care what he does to me. Do you hear me? I don't care!" She almost yelled, and then winced when she realised. When she spoke again, it was in a whisper. "I don't care. All I care about is getting you out. Getting_**

**_us out. You want that too. So please, please trust me." She pleaded._**

**_Chris smiled, his lips quivering. "I do." He said with as much conviction as he could muster._**

**_Bianca nodded. "Good. Then we're doing it now. Right now. We're opening the portal and getting out of here."_**

**_Chris blinked, the action looking like a wince. "Now?" He whispered._**

**_"Yep. Now. We've had this spell for a week now. We've been putting it off, but we should do it. Now. Right now."_**

**_"We gotta get Rosie." Chris said, fear creeping into his voice._**

**_"Rosie?" Paige's voice could be heard crying out. "Rosie was in Causa Mortis too? But I thought you said Chris was the only..." Realisation slowly hit her. Somewhere, she could hear Chris give a soft moan of pain. Their Chris. He remembered._**

**_"Oh God." Paige muttered. She watched on._**

**_Bianca put her hands to her head and scrunched her eyes tightly, her entire face tying itself up. She spoke through clenched teeth. "I realise this isn't attractive." She groaned, drilling her fingers into her temple. Chris chuckled. "I'm making contact with Darryl. Okay... It's working. We're off." She said triumphantly. "I'll see you in a second." Bianca gave Chris a swift kiss on his cheek, and Chris lifted a hand to touch her own cheek. She smiled. Her lips trailed down to touch his ever so lightly, so as not to hurt him._**

**_Bianca pulled away reluctantly"I love you." She whispered, meaning it with every fiber of her being._**

**_"I love you too." He replied, the pain leaving his body, happiness ruling for a rare second._**

**_The Chris watching over his lost love felt his heart wrenched from his chest._**

**_Bianca stood and left the room, locking her eyes on Chris' until the door fully closed with a deep shudder. Then, she turned and bulldozed down the corridor. She barely flinched when a demon passed her, ruthlessly dragging a man- who looked extremely dead- by a rope around his neck. Bianca had to look for a second as they passed. They were going to _****'The Furnace'.****_ So he was dead. A part of Bianca was glad. Death had to be better release than none._**

**_Bianca, to the great relief of the watchers, left the main torture corridor, after 10 minutes of walking. She walked from the closing door into the snake-like corridors, weaving her way around the bizzar labrinth, seeming utterly sure of where she was going._**

**_When she reached Wyatt's office, she stopped. Just to stare. And to think._**

**_"Okay, remember the way from here, guys." Someone up above said, their voice unrecognisable with excitement, and the fact that no-one could see each other. The silent watchers all glared with concentration._**

**_Bianca took a deep breath and walked on through the corridors. She wound around one twisted one, then took a left, which, oddly, sent her twisting sharply to the right. Then, spinning on her heel, she took another left, then two more rights. She wound up a staircase and... There were a lot more corridors and turns and stairs, and pretty soon all watchers were lost in the complicated labyrinth. All watchers except Chris, who dimly recognised the route. This refresher was just what he needed. When he watched Bianca enter the brightly lit room, which was without a doubt the portal room, Chris was sure he could retrace those very steps._**

**_Bianca stepped foreward, with one eye constantly flicking over her shoulder, she began to utter the spell._**

**_"_****Hear these words, hear the rhyme** **Heed the hope within my mind** **Send me back to where I'll find What I wish in place and time****_"_**

**_Bianca stepped back and admired her work. Because on the wall before her a swirling portal had opened up, and she smiled. She felt as if she were looking into a brighter future._**

**_At that moment, orbs began to swirl, and three bodies tumbled to the floor. The largest- Darryl, was steadying two much smaller people in his arms. Chris and Rosie. Bianca was taken aback by the little girl, whom she'd never met before this moment. Her eyes were huge and the tiny face holding them horrifically gaunt. She was- Bianca though- maybe four or five, if her memory was correct. But this little girl looked barely even three years old. A poor, neglected baby doll. Bianca rushed to hold her, some instinct that she was unfamiliar with kicking in._**

**_"Oh my God... Quickly, let's leave. I can't stand to be in this place a second longer." Bianca cried, and Darryl nodded._**

**_"You're telling me." He grabbed Chris, who, all credit to him, tried his very best not to act like a corpse, even though he looked like one. He stood up, looking at Bianca with hope in his eyes._**

**_As they made their way over to the portal, the door opened._**

**_They froze._**

**Damn it****_, the silent watchers all thought. As the four people in the room turned around, the watchers eyes also darted to the lean figure who loomed in the open doorway, growling, his eyes wide in insane horror._**

**_Wyatt looked on at the scene incredulously. "What is going on here?"_**

**_No time to explain. Darrly, Chris and Bianca, holding little Rosie in her arms, quickly fled to the portal. Screaming as if he were being tortured like his victims, Wyatt lifted his hands and threw a stream of lightning at the portal... just as the last body made it out._**

**_Wyatt stood in silence. Alone. He frowned. Stared at the portal. Frowned some more... as if he were waiting for something to happen._**

**_And it did. Wyatt stood triumphant, clapping his hands together. As the last flares of lightning crackled around it, the portal ripped slightly around the edges like ancient paper._**

**_Wyatt laughed, a loud, harrowing noise straight from his gut; his head fell back as he whooped with glee. "Let's see where you end up, traitors."_**

**_Wyatt laughed, unaware of the purple fog that began to steam up around him, and around the room. The watchers held their breaths..._**

**_... The spinning sensation slowly left, along with the fog..._**

_... And they were back to reality once again._

_The metal of the Bank shone gloriously, and everyone squinted and blinked, their eyes becoming accustomed to the brightness. It was a great change from the dark, desolate place they'd just been._

_"I..." Prue searched for her voice. "We didn't mean for you to be in the room."_

_"S'okay." He shrugged, eyes swimming in the memories._

_Phoebe gazed at Chris, and, before she could think to control herself, she blurted, "Chris, what happened next?"_

_She bit her lip. As did just about everyone else. Bas shot Phoebe daggers, as did Piage. Prue only looked sad. They held their breaths._

_"Well," Chris started sheepishly, looking rather pale, either from shock or the recent attack, "the portal cracking sent us all different places. Bianca ended up in Norway somewhere. Darryl, I think, went to Bodrem, Turkey, and Rosie and I ended up in and English forest. Lake District, I think." Chris gazed at his feet. Or, seemingly, through them. "Rosie didn't make it. I carried her in a random direction for a long while, not having a clue where I was going, and... She couldn't hold on. Then, a lot of things happened."_

_Paige's heart dropped to the floor. She looked up at Chris and Bastina, who were both gazing sadly at each other. Silently communicating. Paige wished- she _so_ wished- that she could be part of that. That she could comfort her nephew and daughter for loosing someone they were all so close to. Her own daughter. But, in this time and place, she hadn't earned that right. So, alone, she silently mourned the death of the triplet she'd never known, and probably never would get the chance to know. Life sucked._

_"But, hey, cheer up guys, because there is some good news. We saw where the portal room was, didn't we!" Chris said sheepishly, having raised his head once again. He never kept it down for long."We can find it now, and destroy it. Then get home, having only missed fifteen minutes. Wyatt can then leave us to our mission in the future. It's all coming together!"_

_"Really?" Prue whined, her arms flopping by her sides. "I couldn't keep up with that route! Phoebe, do you remember?" Everyone looked at Phoebe pleadingly._

_"Sorry, guys. I wasn't even trying to pay attention. I guess I was too caught up in... it was just hard to consentrate." Phoebe said, mentally kicking herself for hoping it would all turn out great for Chris and Bianca when, of course, she knew it hadn't. But she'd rooted for them anyway._

_"I second that" Paige muttered. "Bas?" She asked, hoping her daughter had picked up her slack._

_Bas shook her head. "I couldn't find that place if I had a Satnav."_

_"You guy's can't." Chris said, his mind wandering through the labyrinth of corridors, twists, turns and stairs at Causa Mortis. "But, now, I think I can."_

_Chris fished out some paper from the filing drawers close by, and whipped out a pen too. Biting off the lid, scrunching his forehead, he started to draw. _

_Prue looked over his shoulder. "A map. Good thinking."_


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

_In the winding Hallways of Causa Mortis, not a soul could be seen. Everyone who worked here- the demons who usually crawled up and down these intricate walkways- were else-where. If you watched the torches loosely as they sat, mounted on the wall, you could see the flames flicker in time to the load echo's that came from somewhere far off in the castle. Somewhere._

_Suddenly, blue orbs intruded the darkness. Chris, Prue, Bas, Phoebe and Paige suddenly stood in the gothic hallway, drinking in it's eerie atmosphere, slowly growing more and more nervous from it._

_"What'd I tell you. The spell worked a treat! Through the orbing barrier, no problem!" Bas said proudly._

_"And it only took you three days to whip up!" Chris praised sarcastically, earning a whack on the arm for this efforts._

_The gang stepped appart from their huddle, eyeing the walls: the festering mould that crept up them; the mounted torches and the eerie light they cast. Everyone noted how they air was stiflingly thick in reality, when the mere memory in the Bank had smelt rather pleasant._

_Chris was shaking slightly, but taking deep breaths to calm his nerves. He wasn't the weak kid he'd been when he was here all those years ago. This time was different. The map, on which he'd scrawled the way to the portal room, shook in his pale hand._

_"Wow." Paige muttered, her eyes scanning the rough walls as if they might bite her, "we're actually here. It looks different from this view-point. Not quite as creepy."_

_"Really?" Chris said, eyebrow raised._

_Paige gulped. Answered in a high pitched, nervous voice, "No. Not really. It's still creepy as hell."_

_Phoebe's eyes suddenly locked on the shuddering flames. She frowned._

_"Guys, shhh..." She ordered. They all obliged._

_The flames shuddered again, a result of the loud cheering noise rebounding off of the walls; hundreds of voices, mostly male, whooping and clapping._

_"Did you here that?" Phoebe asked._

_"Yep. Must be coming from the stadium." Chris said, anger becoming evident in his voice. "It means something bad is happening to someone. Could be a forced fight to the death."_

_Phoebe and Paige recoiled slightly with shock._

_"That's horrible!" Phoebe exclaimed, imagining two innocents, thrust into a stadium with deadly weapons, knowing it was kill or be killed. Once again, she was struck with pity and disbelief at the cruelty of Chris' world; the cruelty of this place._

_"At least it means there will be hardly anyone hanging around while we get on with our mission." Prue said, trying to lift everyone's mood, including her own. "It'll be a lot easier if we can do this job quietly."_

_Prue walked over to the door they'd orbed close to. Intentionally. Wyatt's office. Paige and Phoebe began to follow._

_"Wait." Chris said suddenly. He'd hung back, a brooding expression on his face._

_"What?" Prue said, not liking what she thought Chris was probably thinking. She shot him a knowing look that said, no way._

_Phoebe clocked on to the look exchange. "What is it?" She asked wearily._

_"Just about every demon who works in this place will be in a stadium. That's a given. They treat this place like a holiday park for the evil; everyone will be there for a show." Chris spoke fast, excitement fizzing in his stomach._

_"I don't like where this is going..." Prue said, shaking her head._

_"Prue, this is the perfect oppertunity to do it! What other chance will we get? We always say we'll do it, but no-one ever plucks up the courage! Well, today's the day!" Chris said with conviction._

_"What's he talking about..." Paige asked Prue, who looked ashen._

_"He's talking about shutting down Causa Mortis for good. Killing the demons..."_

_"And setting the prisoners free." Chris finished. He was feeling rather dizzy, thinking about the suffering they could prevent. Suffering like his. And Rosie's. It would give Chris great pleasure to extract revenge on all those demons who had hurt her._

_"What? How can we do that?" Phoebe yelled. Prue 'shhhed' her dramatically. Phoebe settled for quietly hissing. "How can we do that?"_

_Chris thought for a second. Checked his nerve. Nodded. "I think I can. With Bas' help, of course."_

_She whacked him playfully. "I'm your right-hand gal, as always."_

_Chris and Bas both looked at Prue, their eyes pleading._

_"No! No way in hell! You can't... Wyatt will be there!" Prue argued. Chris and Bas continued to stare. "And demons! Hundreds and hundreds of demons! And we'll be too busy with finding Leo and the portal room and..." Prue's resolve began to crumble._

_Chris jumped at the opportunity as soon as he saw Prue's eyes look sad. "Prue, we have to do this, otherwise nothing will ever get better- for anyone!" Chris put a hand on his anties shoulder. "Anyway, we'll be in and out in a second. Right Bas?"_

_"Right." She agreed._

_Prue looked at her sisters. They were nodding, and Prue could guess that they were thinking about the innocents who had suffered here. And would continue to suffer, unless someone did something about it._

_"Oh, alright. Gimme the map." Prue snached the map sulkily from Chris' hand. "Hurry back." She smiled a little as Chris gave her a swift peak on the cheek. Together, he and Bas disappeared behind a sharp twist in the corridor._

_"Kid's today are so wreakless." Paige tutted. She looked at Prue's worried face. "But selfless, too, and smart. They'll be fine."_

_Paige felt she should be the one worried for Bastina's safety- she _was_ her mother! But she would have to come to terms with the fact that Prue and Chris had taken over that important role. Paige sighed inwardly, and told herself that, if she got the chance to start again with the triplets, she would change that fact._

_"C'mon, let's get this over with. Sooner we get this done the better. Leo needs us. And Piper needs us back home. I wonder how she's been getting on." Phoebe mused whilst Prue opened up the map._

_"With only fifteen minutes of worry to our week of trouble? I bet she's doing just fine. She drew the long straw as far as I'm concerned." Paige chuckled wryly._

_Phoebe giggled, rolling her eyes, and Prue smiled. The three sisters then, in true Charmed One fashion, set their minds on the task ahead._

_Xx_

_Bas and Chris had no other lead to where they were heading than the trail of sound they were following. Every minute or so, there was an eruption of applause and rowdy laughter, and Chris, who was leading, would zip down the path which he supposed led to the source. So far, he guessed he hadn't gone wrong, because the cheering was getting louder and more distinct every time it sounded._

_Eventually, after running through countless dark corridors, each one no different than the next, they came to a large open doorway, that led to the open battlements outside. Chris and Bas raced into the open air like they'd been starved of it. In truth, it was so musky inside the castle that fresh air was a blessing. Even though it was a little biting. In fact, more than a little. Soon, their throats were burning and their faces felt tight with cold._

_From this height, the real might of Causa Mortis could be felt. They were high up in snowy, jagged mountains, which were spread out before their eyes before they became lost in clear, white fog; a perfectly threatening setting for the cold, daunting building which inhabited it._

_"You know, it almost looks elegant from up here." Bas commented, her gaze faraway, lost in the snow._

_Chris found it hard to dissagree, what with the beautiful brickwork, and the way the black of the castle contrasted the scenery so dramatically. The long streach of the castle was curved, and Chris and Bas had a perfect view of the front in it's entirety- truly, the castle was undeniably attractive. However, Chris wasn't fooled. He'd lived here._

_Chris looked out at the long battlement, and the open entrance back into the castle it lead to. There, a hell of a lot of noise suddenly erupted. Cheering and banterish yelling, much louder than they'd originally heard it._

_"I'm thinking it's that way." Bas said, reigning her wide eyes back in. "Just a hunch."_

_Chris smiled, and began to slowly walk towards the entrance- a stone doorway with engravings of patterned dragons curling around it. Chris did feel like he was entering the dragons den._

_Coming from the freezing cold air of the outside, their sences were brutally assulted when they came back inside to the overpowering stench of animal, manure and straw. Smacking her hand over her nose and mouth, Bas gave Chris a disgusted look, which he returned. Together, they looked over, from a height into the stadium. The massive stadium. It made Bas dizzy to sit above it. They were in one of the entrance booths, looking down on the masses of hyper, screaming demons and warlocks who made up the writhing crowd. The demons were seated (although most had leapt from their seats in excitement) in the huge circled area overlooking the arena, and everyone's attention was captivated by what was going on down there. Soon, Chris and Bas were captivated, too. And horrified._

_In the middle of the dusty arena, Leo stood, shuffling on his feet nervously. He was visibly shaking, and constantly running sweaty palms through his hair. In the other hand, he held both a red cape stretched over a wooden dowel, and a sword, though he held them uncommitally. He seemed to be muttering to himself, his eyes closed, probably trying to block out the hellish cacophony around him._

_"Demons and Warlocks... creatures of darkness..." announced a loud voice. Chris and Bas followed the sound. It was Wyatt._

_Wyatt sat in a thrown in a master-booth away from the heaving masses, speaking to the audiance as if he were the headline act at this show. He stood tall, and spoke._

_"This will be our final round of the day- and a very extrordinary day it has been, too! This Novillada has been a memorable one indeed! "Wyatt yelled, and the audiance screamed in agreement, screaming and thrashing wildly. "We've had to replace our novillero once again, due to another fatality, but no matter. The last round will commence regardless, and with a worthy novillero on the scene! My father." Wyatt sneered. The crowd applauded. " Let the Tercio de Muerte begin!"_

_Chris and Bas found they were both holding their breaths. Bas could feel her heartbeat thumping in her ears. She and Chris watched in horror as gates at the far end of the arena were flung open, and a young bull hurtled out, skidding madly, leaving a trail of dust flaring up behind it. It's eyes were unlike any bull Bas had ever seen. They were oddly... human._

_"Chris..." Bas began, panicking._

_"I know." Chris said, fuming. He watched the helpless innocent, who'd been transformed by magic into a witless animal, as he or she ran around wildly. It made him sick._

_Eventually, the bull came to a standstill in the centre of the arena. It stood, it's entire body heaving as it panted. Poor Leo was rooted to the ground in fear._

_A few other men and women, who, by their sorry state, were obviously inmates, too, ran around, flinging capes in front of the animal, destracting it. It soon became aggravated, snorting with aggression. Then, with a push from a demon in the crowd, an ill looking middle aged man with a limp hopped near the bull and quickly sank two long barbs into the animals shoulder._

_Bas eyes went wide, and the scream that she went to cry was muffled by Chris' hand._

_The bloody animal stamped and thrashed, and Leo- with more than a little unwillingness and obvious disgust- took his oppertunity. The forced bullfighter approached the bull with his cape, flourishing it before him. The bull clocked it. He charged for Leo as he stood, trembling. Showing no signs of moving._

_"Move!" Yelled Chris. Screams and jeers overpowered his voice. "Come on, Dad, move!"_

_At the last minute, Leo swerved unsteadily, landing on his bottom in the dust as the bull raced past. The crowd went wild._

_Xx_

_"Alright, here we go." Prue said, holding out her hands for her sisters to take. She smiled. "Feels like the power of three."_

_Phoebe and Paige smiled back, both feeling their hearts warm. They both took one of Prue's open hands._

_"Remember the spell?" Prue checked._

_Phoebe rolled her eyes. "Yes, worry guts, for the last time- we're all set! Now, let's do this."_

_They all set their sights on the portal that swilred before them. The portal that they knew led to somewhere in their own time. It'd been relatively easy finding it. All they'd had to do was run for fifteen minutes and fight five demons to the death. Or vanquish. Now, finally, the task they'd set themselves a week ago (a week accurate to their current time!) was almost met._

_Together, they all began to chant, their voices mixing harmoniously, as if they were meant to be spoken as one:_

"Magic portal that transports back,

Leave this place, and never come back!"

_As the words were spoken, the portal began to bubble. It spat and foamed, as if it were boiling, until, finally, it evaporated into multi-coloured steam._

_The sisters beheld their word with pride._

_"Hu. Well that was easy." Paige scoffed. Prue nodded happily._

_Phoebe let out a sigh of relief. "Yep. Gladly so. And, if the spell works right, it should be blocked. Wyatt won't be able to re-open it." She said._

_"Awesome. Ladies, our work here is done." Paige said, offering high-fives._

_Her mood deflated as, suddenly, voices began to fill the air. Triumphant, grateful voices; cries, sobs..._

_The sisters ran to the open doorway to see a flood of prisoners rushing down the corridor, whizzing past the sisters spellbound faces. They can't have had any idea where they were going, but they ran regardless, clinging to the shred of hope that potentially meant freedom._

_"Oh God. Chris and Bastina." Prue muttered, watching the desperate people rush past._

_Paige shook her head in awe. Then frowned as a thought popped up. "Does anyone know where the fire exit is?"_

_Xx_

_If this bullfight were done proffecionally, the kill would've been swift, with the sword penetrating the heart from an entrance between the shoulders. But this was a barbaric re-enactment of the Spanish tournament. And Leo wasn't a good aim._

_The bull raced uncontrolabbly around the arena, it's trail now not only dust, but blood. Leo's sword stuck out from the bulls shoulders, piercing it's neck at an awkward angle. The poor animal- once a human- bellowed in agony over and over again as it waited for death._

_"Chris, we've got to do something!" Bas screamed over the deafening noise of the bloodthirsty crowd._

_Chris nodded numbly. It was time for his brothers sick game to end. He raised his hands._

_"I'm not so good at this..." Chris muttered. Bas didn't hear._

_"Go!" She yelled, watching the weak, battered Leo attempt to taunt the bull, who was becoming just as exhausted, saliva hanging from it's mouth._

_"GO!" She sobbed. "NOW!_

_"_Leo_!" Chris yelled._

_He heard the audience go quiet._

_The man himself appeared behind Chris and Bas in a shower of blue lights. He blinked, bewildered._

_"Chris!" He exclaimed, eyes wide and gratefull. Then, he collapsed to the floor. Bas rushed to his side._

_"What's your plan, exactly?" She said nervously as the crowd began to get rowdy, looking at the empty space where their bullfighter had been. Wyatt himself was baffled._

_"First step, getting all innocents out of here." Chris said._

_Bas watched the arena as, one by one, the innocents floating around the edges in confusion, looking for Leo, began to disappear in orbs. And she watched as, one by one, they appeared, weak and shivering, at her side._

_"Get them out of here!" Chris stage-whispered to Bas. "And everyone else. Evacuate the building!"_

_"Easier said than done!" She complained, but gestured to the innocents to follow anyway, with Leo hanging on her shoulder. One man helped Bas carry him, even though he looked weak enough to drop himself. Suffering hadn't made these people any less kind._

_As they picked themselves up and followed, one blurry eyed woman turned back to Chris._

_"Thank you." She said horsely. Then, she hurried to catch up with Bas and her followers._

_Chris could feel tears brimming, but he didn't let them escape. He was a grown man, for God's sakes. And one that was about to take down this hellish place with style._

_By now, the crowd was up in arms. Completely enraged. Wyatt was pacing back and forth in his booth, screaming at the demons who tried to calm him; watching this, Chris smiled. Things were only going to get worse for his brother. Chris would personally make sure of that._

_Xx_

_Bas raced along the corridor, the flood of people already overtaking her. They may not have had her strength, but their sheer will was enough to get them stumbling at top speed down the dark, winding paths, which were a flurry of activity. _

_Using the exploding potions she had pocketed before they arrived (just in case...),Bas had already released hundreds of prisoners. Their energy eventually caught up with Bas, and she screamed, enjoying the sense of unity._

_"Come on! We're getting out of here!" She yelled, exasperated. "Trample every demon you see!" The prisoners screamed their agreement. Most of the screams sounded more like sobs. But sobs of joy and relief were far better than sobs of pain and suffering._

_"Hey!" Bas heard someone call. Prue._

_She looked over the sea of heads to see the sisters, stood in awe at the escapees rampage. They looked flustered, and were clearly wondering how this simple mission had taken such a complicated turn._

_"Guys, quick, start running and releasing! We got Leo, now let's go!" She was becoming out of breath. "We've got to get out of here... before Chris goes nuts!" Bas cried, zooming past the sisters. _

_She looked back, huffing and puffing, and saw the three jump into the rushing river of bodies. They were instantly swept along with the force._

_"What's he gonna do?" Paige called, leaping to make her voice heard._

_"No idea. But I think it's gonna be big." Bas cried, imagining Chris' locked up anger, and the force with witch he'd unleash it. The crowd hear her words. They cheered wildly. They had a lot of locked up anger, too. _


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

Chris blurrily opened his eyes, feeling the sore ache from the action immediately. He felt like it was he, not his dad, who had gone a few rounds with a frantic bull. Dizzily, he gazed around as the room came into view.

A figur swam into his vision. It was Piper. Her hair was disheveled and there were dark bags under her eyes. She was looking at Chris with a terrified expression, a hand placed on his cheek. He tried to say her name, to ask comfort her, but he choked. His throat burned as he coughed.

"It's alright, take it easy." She soothed as Chris sank back into the sofa, head spinning. How had he gotten like this? What had happened? He thought as far back as he remembered: Causa Mortis; the forced bull-fight; Bas running off with Leo hanging limply on her shoulder and the prisoners following. He remembered staying behind and then... Nothing.

Chris gave up. His head was aching and all he wanted to do was sleep. When the darkness swirled back into his vision, he fell into it; embraced it.

Piper watched as her son sank back into unconsciousness, his handsome features, which had been scrunched up in pain, once again going slack.

"Is he okay?" She asked her sisters.

"Bastina said he'd be alright. She said he used so much power, got so badly beaten up, that when the adrenaline rush wore off, his energy just left completely..." Phoebe regarded Chris silently, feeling numb. Cold. "But he'll be alright. He pushed it pretty hard, but he'll get better. He always does, no matter what happens to him."

Phoebe looked at Piper and smiled, wanting to show her how much admiration she had for Piper's son. How she just knew Ruby would've been just the same. But Piper wouldn't make eye contact.

"Now," Piper stood and turned to Phoebe and Paige, her face becoming solid steel, "let's face the even bigger problem at hand, shall we? What the _hell_ happened that made time get so messed up!"

Phoebe and Paige's faces both fell. They thought about the eight long months their sister had had to endure. _Eight months_. They'd only been gone a week. Piper stopped yelling, seeing how tired and beaten up her sisters were. She controlled herself, remembering that they'd had a tough time, too.

"Just, tell me exactly what happpened..." Piper said softly to her sisters.

They hessitasted. Their eyes brimmed with tears. But, eventually, they began to speak,

As the Phoebe and Paige spoke, Chris heard their voices dimly. But, in his state of semi-consciousness, that wasn't what he was focused on. He was focusing on the memories of the day... Slowly returning...

Xx

_He remembered now._

_"Get them out of here!" Chris had stage-whispered to Bas. "And everyone else. Evacuate the building!"_

_"Easier said than done!" She complained, but gestured to the innocents to follow anyway, with Leo hanging on her shoulder. One man helped Bas carry him, even though he looked weak enough to drop himself. Suffering hadn't made these people any less kind._

_As they picked themselves up and followed, one blurry eyed woman turned back to Chris._

_"Thank you." She said hoarsely. Then, she hurried to catch up with Bas and her followers._

_Chris could feel tears brimming, but he didn't let them escape. He was a grown man, for God's sakes. And one that was about to take down this hellish place with style._

_By now, the crowd was up in arms. Completely enraged. Wyatt was pacing back and forth in his booth, screaming at the demons who tried to calm him; watching this, Chris smiled. Things were only going to get worse for his brother. Chris would personally make sure of that._

_He stood and streatched out his arms and palms, closing his eyes. It was seconds before he could feel the energy, hot and buzzing, in his finger-tips. He grinned toothily. Then stopped. He looked and felt insane. Calmed himself down. Blocked out the carnage around him as the crowd of demons let out their fury on each other._

_In mid air, his finger's twitched,as if reaching for something. In fact, he was. In his mind's eye, Chris could see the snow swirling in the air around him, given the force of bullets by the harsh, biting wind. He was separated by it from thick, solid stone, but it was still there, mere meters away. If he could just grasp it, feel the freezing coldness of it on his skin. He _could_ feel it on his skin. It was like ice..._

_Chris opened his eyes. Looked up. Spotted Wyatt. Wyatt, looking up from the demon he was yelling down to, looked back, as if feeling his brothers gaze on him. Their eyes locked and they knew they were both thinking the same thing. How two brothers, who had started off so alike, could have ended up leading such different lives. Being, now, in such different positions, even though they stood in the same stadium._

I'll knock him down to my level before the day is out,_ Chris thought. He closed his knuckles and pulled._

_The feeling was like his gut was being wrenched from his stomach. The effect was of a bigger scale. Chris got one good look at Wyatt's face- the fear eched in it for the first time- before the walls around the stadium caved in, and a brilliant white light tumbled through. Wyatt was consumed by it, his body folding up and snapping under the force of... Snow. Tones and tones of it. Masses of the freezing white stuff, crashing with jagged, black stone and crushing the horrified demons as they stood, horrified, to their deaths. Like the heavens had fallen heavily to earth._

_Chris scrunched his eyes shut. The noise was tremendous. It was like and earth-quake. Screams were lost beneath the thundering of rock and the whooshing of the slippery white river of pure death. It was so quick that demons were ripped appart and limbs were sent flying before they had time to explode in fire. As a result, the vanquishes were not as clean as they usually are, and soon the snow curdled with deep red blood. Chris had lost sight of Wyatt, but he assumed his blood was, too, turning the snow crimson._

_Chris began to stumble back as the walls fell into the mile-wide stadium closer and closer to where he stood. His focus on the power was lost, but it was no longer needed. The walls had begun to collapse. There was no stopping them now. It was chaos._

_Unsteady on the violently shaking ground, Chris span around, lunging for the stone exit where he could cross the battlements and get to the other part of the castle. If he got there, he'd be safe- that part of the castle would hold. But the battlement wouldn't._

_Adrenaline pumped through his system- so much so that his skin barely even bristled when he reached the ice-cold air of the outside. Breathing heavily, Chris pumped his legs and arms as fast as he could manage. The thundering sound was close behind him, the air from the collapsing stone whacking his back. But he could see the doorway. He was going to make it!_

_Chris' breath caught. The world seemed to slow down as the ground fell from under him. Seconds before he'd been filled with hope, but, like the walls of the stadium, it crumbled around him as the battlement collapsed and he felt himself falling..._

_...Falling. Stone assualted his body as it fell with him. He screamed. He could taste blood. Feebly, futilely, with the last shred of his hope, he stretched his arm out..._

_And felt a hand grab his wrist._

_Chris screamed dryly as gravity played tug of war with his battered body. His muscles wailed and his arm made a harrowingly loud snapping sound. Rock continued to fall around him until it was just him. Swinging in the cold air and the silence._

_"Chris... Oh God, Chris, can you hear me?" A strained voice called. Bas!_

_Chris tried to speak, but he only yelled with the pain shooting up his arm like a sword had been plunged into it. He grabbed Bas' arm with his good- or at least better- arm and, together, they worked to haul him up._

_Chris and Bas collapsed onto the stone floor of the castle. Both exhausted. Breathing heavily._

_"You- okay?" Bas heaved._

_Chris sat up and looked at his battered body. Blood was oozing out of slashes all over him, created by the rocks that had almost ripped him to shreds. "I guess." He muttered, cradling his broken arm. He could already see the skin near his elbow turning a sickly purple. He moaned. _

_"Wow." Bas said, sitting up._

_Wow indeed, thought Chris, looking down at the fate that he'd narrowly escaped. The entire west part of the castle had collapsed, taking the battlement down with it. Fathoms below them, the remains of it lay in a massive mountain of snow and debris. Even as they watched, the stones continued to tumble down the pile. At least no bodies could be seen from up here. They were all buried anyway. Which made Chris and Bas' jobs easier. They themselves were sat one the broken edge of the battlement. And even that looked close to falling off._

_"C'mon." Chris said, taking Bas' hand. They ran inside, away from the sound of cracking, and watched as the floor they'd been sat on broke away and fell to the graveyard below._

_"That was close." Bas murmered. Chris turned to her._

_"Thank you, Bas." He looked again at the chaos below. "You saved me."_

_"Yeh." Bas smiled. "I've saved a lot of people in the last five minutes."_

_Chris looked at her questioningly. Then realised._

_"Oh! The prisoners!"_

_"Yep. They're searching for the exit as we speak- they got some grit. I can't help but admire them." Bas smiled to think about it. "I left Leo with the sisters. He's okay. They're going to open one last portal, and get the survivors out of here, then just go ahead and destroy the portal room." Bas said. " We wouldn't've before, but why stop smashing stuff when we've already started, hu?"_

_Chris nodded, but his head began to spin. The world blurred. He stumbled._

_"Woa..." Bas said, steadying him. "Let's go and get you sorted. You look awful."_

_"Thank's. I feel it." Chris scoffed. He blinked. Saw Wyatt's face, terrified. His body as it was crushed- folded- under snow and stone._

_"You alright?" Bas asked, concern creasing her face. When Chris just nodded numbly in response, Bas took his shoulders and tentively steered him down into the castle's winding corridors. They stepped in perfect synchronisation down the corridor, which no longer seemed dark and dangerous. It was just still and lifeless. Because all the life was fleeing._

_The two walked in silence, clinging onto eachother. Soon, they started to see people running- in truth, they were mainly limping- about the corridors, so the two followed their direction. Chris was walking now, but Bas still clung to him like a lifeline. She knew that Wyatt had been back there. That Chris must have killed him. She looked into his eyes; so deep and haunted. But when Chris noticed her gazing and smiled to reassure her, Bas knew he'd be fine. He wasn't broken_ just_ yet._

_"Here we are." Chris said, pointing to the door that they recognised as belonging to the portal room. "Finally. Let's do this and go home. It's been a lot week."_

_Bas nodded her agreement. She pushed open the door..._

_And let it swing on it's hinges as she and her cousin froze on the spot._

_The room had been trashed. The sisters and Leo were almost lifeless on the floor. Blood streamed steadily from Phobeb's nose, and from a ghastly looking wound in Paiges head. Sprawled out on the ground was Prue, her hair fanned around her head, face-down. Leo was proped up against the wall, head hanging limply. They were all out of it._

_And Wyatt, battered and broken, was stood stiff and unsteady as if his legs were match sticks. Sneering._

_Chris gasped and stepped back. A raspy laugh escaped Wyatt's dry, cracked lips when he saw his brothers fear._

_"Think ya killed me then, di- you?" Wyatt slurred. He took a lunging step forward. Steadied himself. His red-rimmed eyes were brimming with madness. His smile revealing broken teeth, yellow with smeared blood, hanging from his gums. Tufts of hair stood up from his scalp where his long blond locks had been ripped out. He'd always been a madman disguised as a powerful dictator. Now, Chris had ripped his mask away. For now, Wyatt was just a madman. _

_"No-one can kill me. No-effing-body can kill me! People don't bulldoze me out of their paths! I bulldoze them!" He screeched, and lunged at his brother. Chris yelped as he was tackled, Wyatt's head hitting his gut and the many cut's and grazes there. Wyatt sent him flying back so that his head smashed into the corridor wall. They both fell._

_"Wyatt!" Bas cried, tugging the man off Chris. Anger flared in his eyes as he swung a punch into Bas' jaw. She flew back with a scream._

_Ignoring the pain in his head, his arm, his _entire_ body, Chris stood and smashed his body into Wyatt's. Wyatt easily stepped aside, and Chris stumbled into the portal room._

_"You're an idiot- a real crap-minded fool- if you think you can stop me! You should've just joined me when I still gave a damn." Wyatt stumbled towards his brother. "Because now, guess what? Hu?" He sniffed blood back up his nose. "I _don't!"

_A Darklighter cross-bow instantly formed in Wyatt's hand. He smiled and breathed heavily. Spitting blood. He raised the arrow._

_"No!" Screached Prue weakly, roused from unconsciousness. Paige too, slowly awoke. Spotted the crazed man with the Darklighter cross-bow._

_"What the hell?" She cried._

_"Bye bye brother." Wyatt whispered. Chris squeezed his eyes shut as Wyatt let the thick, poisoned tipped arrow go._

_There was no pain. Only the sound of the arrow tearing through skin. And a soft, pain-laced whimper. But it wasn't Chris who'd maid the noise. He opened his eyes._

_From where she stood, mid-lunge, Prue collapsed limply onto Chris, landing in his lap, soaking it with blood. Her breathing was maddeningly erratic and her body was already shaking with spasms. _

_Wyatt flinched, wide-eyed. "Damn witch. Always was over-protective." He frowned. "More of you, though." He looked at Chris and laughed, but it sounded like a raspy sob._

_Chris looked into his anties deep green eyes. Eyes like his own. She wasn't his mother, but she'd been the only mother he'd ever had. The best mother he could've hoped for after... After he'd lost his own. Chris knelt, holding Prue's head in his shaking hands, unwilling to loose another mother._

_"Prue..." Chris cried. His throat was tight. "Why the hell did you do that. Why the hell..." Prue couldn't hear him. The arrow had entered her heart. She was already dead._

_Back and forth, back and forth, Chris and the corpse rocked, Phoebe and Paige clinging on. Saying things. What were they saying? Chris didn't know. He didn't give a crap._

_Prue was dead._

_Again._

_"What a shame." Wyatt lifted his arm robotically as another arrow appeared. "I'd better aim carefully this time."_

_He aimed once again._

_Suddenly, Wyatt winced, and the cross-bow clattered at his feet. Bas' arm clenched around his neck and Wyatt, in his weakened state, struggled helplessly, caught off guard._

_"Quick Chris. Kill him!"_

_Chris idily wondered how to do it. He had so many powers at his disposal. So many painful ways in which to murder him. But he was tired of putting so much effort into life, just to have it spit back in his face. Chris put Prue's head on the ground. Quickly, he stood. Eyed the cross-bow. That would do._

_Acting fast, Chris took the arrow from the bow, and looked his brother in the eye for a fraction of a second. Pure, crazed animal eyes glared back. Chris didn't feel a hint of guilt as he plunged the arrow straight into Wyatt's chest, right where his black, rotten, cobweb ridden heart lay._

_Like Prue's body had, and the dragons had, and so many other people's had as Chris had watched them die, Wyatt's body spasmed Chris looked away. Then, it went still._

_Bas let Wyatt's bodyfall to the floor._

_Chris watched him fall, and his head span. He became painfully aware of the bruises and slashes all over his body. His arm, suddenly beginning to throb as the pain returned. As Wyatt fell to the ground, Chris, his vision swimming, thought that it didn't look like_ _a bad idea..._

Xx

Chris' eyes snapped open. Where was he? He fought against the darkness pulling at him to sleep again- he was up for good. He jumped onto his feet, and instantly felt hands on his shoulders, pushing him lightly back down.

"Careful Chris, careful. Don't push it." Phoebe said, settling Chris back down onto the Halliwell Manor sofa. He tried to relax. But he couldn't. How had he gotten here? This wasn't the Halliwell Manor of the future. This was home in the past. How much had he missed. He voiced his questions all at once to Paige, who sat close by him. She didn't try to calm him- she looked to overwhelmed herself. She just nodded robotically as Chris threw question after question.

"We left Bas to go back to base with the survivors, and then we used the potion. The one that Gideon gave us. But that's the thing..." Paige grimaced, thinking about what Piper had told her. "Something went wrong._ Really_ wrong. And we think we know why."

"What do you mean?" Chris said, sitting up, worried. He could see that everyone's faces were pale and scared. Terrified, even. It terrified Chris to see.

"Because Gideon is corrupt." Piper spat. He eyes met Piper's and her face crumbled. "Evil." Chris could see the pain in her watery eyes. "The bastard took Wyatt."

Wyatt. The Wyatt that Chris _hadn't _killed. For a moment, Chris remembered what he'd done. He wished it would make a difference. Truth was, the world was too far gone for Wyatt's death to mean salvation for anyone; Wyatt's second in command and all of his other followers would simply continue where he'd left off. But Chris was here, and baby Wyatt still lived. There was still hope.

Then, Piper's words hit home.

"Wait... What? Gideon? Really!" Chris yelled.

"Yeh." Phoebe sighed, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. Chris imagined she was still reeling from Prues death. Her second death.

"So, what... Does this mean that..." Chris froze. It was suddenly all clear. He watched in incomprehension as Piper nodded, holding her stomach- her pregnant stomach. Chris blinked. _That_ was different.

"What do I need to know?" He looked again at Piper's stomach. "I'm guessing it's a lot.

Piper bowed her head. She couldn't bear to talk. Instead, Leo spoke, emerging from the doorway where he'd been lurking. His eyes were red-rimmed and tired, and someone else- Darryl- was with him, his hand on his shoulder. They'd obviously been talking. Chris was done with all these surprises. But there was more to come.

"Gideon betrayed us." He said. "He sabotaged the potion so that it made us return much later in the future than it was mean to. It's been over eight months since we left in real time." Leo's eyes flicked towards Piper's stomach, which she held lovingly. "Gideon came here a few months ago and took Wyatt. He trapped Piper and Darryl here and they haven't seen him, or Wyatt, since." Leo paused, aware of all eyes locked on his. He didn't meet any of them. "If we don't get him, then Gideon will turn him. And nothing will change."

Chris was unwilling to give up hope. "Well then, we have to find him. Easy. He'll be in the Underworld, where Wyatt can't escape."

"Yes. You're probably right." Leo sighed, looking at his son with the same fear that Chris had seen in Wyatt's eyes just before he'd crushed him. "But that information is worthless to us. Because we're stuck here. We walked right into a trap. There's no way out of the Manor."

**Xx**

**Xx**

**A/N:** Really sorry about the tiny bit of swearing. I promised myself I wouldn't. But I felt the moment needed it. If I'm honest, it needed bigger swearing! Now that I've started, I think I might let the characters swear whenever they want from now on. Why the hell not! XD


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

Chris closed his eyes and buried his weary head into his palms. Then, grimacing, he lifted it up again. Ew. His palms were sweaty. And, he observed with slight concern, they were shaking.

By this point in his oh-so-complicated life, Chris was simply overwhelmed. He couldn't believe this was happening to him. All he'd wanted was to save the entire world without any problems or repercussions- had he aimed too high? He must have, Chris concluded bitterly, because now, everything was crumbling around him. Things were playing out just as they were supposed to (which was very badly), and nothing Chris had said, done or endured had made any difference what-so-ever.

Somewhere in the back of his mind (the part that wasn't aching to the point of tears), a memory popped up in Chris' mind. Wyatt. A young boy- though he prematurely wore the the sulky, irritated expression of a teenager, his floppy blond hair hiding eyes filled with contempt (which, at that point, had seemed more like mere childish annoyance than the glare of a killer). And Piper (or mum, or... whatever!), looking down at the boy sternly and dishing out the phrase that, in Chris' time, she was very fond of. "You reap what you sow, Wyatt!" Chris saw Piper chide, as she'd done so many times during the troublesome period just before... the event...

Chris tried to think of any time he'd sown evil. He was sure he never had. Not_ really_. And yet, for some reason, his life had turned out utterly shitty, while Wyatt- the evil dictator- waltzed around, bloody... _dictating_... without a sorrow in the world other than, possibly, who would he torture today that he hadn't already, and, after said torture, who would be left to wipe his oh-so-special backside...?

_Wait_, thought Chris, his imature anger momentairily becoming woe, _that should not be he _does_, but he _did.

_Because I killed him._

The most horrifying thing about this entire situation- his failure and the very real possibility that things might play out completely as they were supposed to- was that if Chris didn't change the future, then he really _had_ murdered his brother (or will do, depending on how you looked at it). Dead. Gone. No second chances. And to think, before then, he'd sown near enough no evil, but reaped a whole load anyway. It was utterly unfair.

"Life's unfair." Muttered Phoebe.

"Oh... Sorry." Chris said sheepishly. He'd forgotten Phoebe's amazing- and slightly intrusive- empath abilities. "I shouldn't sit here feeling sorry for myself, but..."

"You can't help it. How could you possibly not think pessimistically when you've got all this time on your hands! I don't know how Piper managed it for so long." Phoebe wondered. She looked up from where she was sat, head in hands on the kitchen table, and gave Piper a questioning glance.

Piper was making coffe, breathing heavily and sweating a lot, holding the small of her back every time she walked from the counter to the fridge. Chris and Phoebe had offered to help on numerous occasions, but, after Piper met them with angry defiance, they thought it best to let her get on with it. If it helped her.

Piper looked back at Phoebe. Her eyes were haunted and weary; heavy with the months of heart-ache that she'd had to endure. She didn't expect anyone to comprehend just how difficult it had been, which is why, when Phoebe questioned her, wondering how she'd managed, Piper didn't yell and scream in frustration like she wanted to. She just sighed and smiled.

"I managed it for so long because, even though it was hard, I had faith in you guys." She said simply.

Phoebe gave a tiny, amused smile back. "You've been having too many heart-to-heart chats with Darryl, haven't you? I can tell."

Piper scoffed and turned back to her coffee- the term 'turned' being very loose. She shuffled into position, more like.

"You alright, mum?" Chris asked for the dozenth time. He was feeling terribly guilty, considering he was the reason Piper was so immobile.

"Yes, worry-guts, I'm fine. I'm perfectly capable of making a few cups of- oh..." Piper suddenly winced and doubled over, breathing erratically.

Chris jumped out of his seat. "Oh my God, are you having the baby? Are you having _me_ right now! No, not now... That'll mean it's too late! Cross your le..."

"If you're about to say what I think you're about to say, then don't you dare!" Piper screeched, and Chris blushed, feeling like a child. "No, Chris, I'm not having you. Not yet." Piper sighed as Phoebe helped her sit down. "You're just a feisty little rascal, that's all."

"I can't believe I'm still in there! With all the stress, I'd have thought..." Chris trailed off. This was more than slightly awkward.

"Chris, do you really think I'd be so selfish as to possibly jeopardise your health by letting you be born prematurely? I would never."

Chris decided he wouldn't bother asking how it was possible to just _decide_ not to have your baby just yet. Anyway, she was giving him a look that said, "_I just can, I'm that incredible"_ so he left it at that.

"I wonder if the others are getting any further with our escape plan." Phoebe mused, finishing her sentence in the very same moment that a loud _bang_ came from upstairs. Never once in Charmed history had 'a loud bang from upstairs' been a good thing. Without hesitation, Chris got to his feet.

"I'd better check."

Xx

"_Sigmund_?" Leo cried as the man himself clumsily orbed into the attic (his orb a strange golden colour, rather than blue), tripping and knocking the Book of Shadows off of it's stand as he did so. This, however was a good thing, Leo thought, as it a) warned the others down stairs that something was happening, and b) gave assurance that this man was, in fact, Sigmund, and not an evil imposter, who would've repelled the Book instantly. Sigmund had touched it. He was okay.

As Sigmund stood and started to compose himself, Chris orbed in.

"What happened, we heard..." He spotted Sigmund. "How the hell did _he_ get in?"

"With great difficulty. Hense the pitifully ungraceful entrance. I'm sorry if I startled you." Sigmund appologised, shuffling nervously, as if affraid someone would suddenly attack him. Leo couldn't blame the guy. Paige and Chris were shooting the man daggers, although Leo couldn't see a reason to want to hurt Sigmund.

"Sigmund, thank heavens you came! You have to get us out of here. Gideon is evil, and he has Wyatt, and if we don't find him..."

"He knows."Chris stated. If looks could kill, Sigmund would've dropped down dead at that very second.

"It's obvious." Paige agreed, catching Chris' trail of thought. "You and Gideon were inseparable at Magic School; always... whispering." She paused, as if for effet. "Conspiring." Darryl, too, suddenly became very threatening, eyeing Sigmund with distrust. Leo was just about to object- to say that his good friend and college would never wish to harm anyone, especially his own son- but Sigmund lowered his head in admittance and defeat. Leo was perplexed.

"I did know. And I helped." He admitted shamefully.

Leo felt his heart contract and his fists clench. "_What_?" He said, looming towards his 'friend'.

Sigmund, however, took a step forward, rather than back. "But Leo, listen to me! I believed we were doing good, not evil! And in a twisted way, so did- does- he!"

"What do you mean! What about any of this could possibly be good!" Chris screamed, voicing Leo's thought's, minus the curses.

"Believe me, please! Chris, you, more than anyone must understand, coming from a future so desolate and filled with suffering at the hands of Wyatt Halliwell. Gideon and I, we were in agreement that so high a concentration of power shouldn't exist in one boy- we knew it was dangerous." Sigmund turned his attention to Leo, who was seething, his veins popping out of his neck in fury. "Leo, I'm sorry. We never wanted to hurt you, but it was the only way. Or, I thought it was... but now..."

Then, Leo exploded.

Lightning errupted from his fingertips, and Sigmund was wrapped in the glowing claws and hurled off of he ground- he was held up, as if hanged, suspended in the air. Painful bolts of energy buzzing through his body, he jolted and kicked helplessly, feeling the full force of Leo's rage. Chris stood, wide-eyed. He could feel his own skin tingling with the energy.

"Leo, stop!" Darryl cried, but it was Chris who lunged to stop his father. He tackled him down, ripping him away from the flow of light. Sigmund grunted and dropped to the ground in a smouldering heap.

"Dad!" Chris cried as he wrestled Leo to the ground. "Stop! Calm down. What happened to being a pacifist!"

Darryl helped to calm Leo as he screamed, "he's trying to kill my son! Why shouldn't I kill him!"

The burning lump of black material sifted, and Sigmund's reddened, blisterd face revealed itself. "Because- I... I'm here to _help _you!" He coughed, shakily lifting himself up from the floor. Smoke was coming off of his charred cloak like he had smouldering cigarette-butts sown into it.

"What do you mean?" Paige snapped.

"I was wrong. I should never have indulged in Gideon's ideas- in his twisted sense of good and evil." He said, eyes glistening with rueful tears. "Gideon lost himself long ago. His vision of the future is warped, and I no longer want any part in it. What he's doing is wrong."

Great. Cheers very much, Sherlock, for figuring

that_ one out! _Chris thought bitterly. Then, he stopped. Why was he so negative lately? When all of this was over (_if it ever is_, continued his negative voice), he really had to try being more upbeat and optimistic. Like his dad. Or, like his dad usually is, when he's not pulverising his enemies.

"So, why are you here?" Chris asked, back on track now, as he eased the grip on his dad, who was much calmer from having his faith in a friend restored very slightly.

"Because, like I said, I wanted to help you. So I broke the barrier." Sigmund replied.

"What?" Chris said dubiously. "When?"

"When I orbed in, it was with a special spell that collapsed the barrier that had you trapped here." Sigmund explained. When Leo began to stutter guiltily, Sigmund lowered his head.

"You're welcome, Leo. It's the very least I can do, considering." He said. "I'm so sorry. I should leave. I hope you can forgive me." And with that, and a final glow of blue, Sigmund was gone, and only a few trails of smoke and the smell of burning flesh was left lingering in his place.

For about a minute, no-one said a word. They were all quite unable to believe that they were free- just like that! And Piper had been here for so long...

"Well," Chris scoffed, "he could've come sooner." Then, he remembered his new plan about thinking more positively. "But at least he came at all." There. Positive. "Oh! We can leave now!" Chris cried suddenly, jumping up. Leo didn't react. He just lay on the floor where Chris had pinned him.

"Leo." Daryll approached him. Leo had become very pale.

"Dad? Are you alright?" Chris crouched down to his fathers level and searched for life in his still gaze.

Leo's eyes suddenly snapped into life. "Yeh. I'm fine." He assured Chris. "I just... I just scared myself for a second there. Being so angry and all..."

Chris shrugged. "Just shows how much you care."

Leo smiled gratefully, and Chris smiled back, but after about ten seconds of continuous smiling, they both began to feel awkward and slightly insane. Paige stifled a giggle.

Chris cleared his throat. "Umm, let's just... let's go find mum."

When Chris appeared, his form solidifying from the glistening blue lights, he was surprized to find the kitchen empty. He, Leo, Paige and Darryl, who'd orbed behind him, all split and searched the house.

"Piper!" Paige called. "Come quick, we've got good news! Come share the love, God knows there's enough of it!"

"Ha ha, very funny." Chris said dryly.

With Piper still not answering their calls, Chris raced about the house, but skidded to a halt when he noticed that the front door was wide open, the almost blindingly, but wonderfully bright sunlight pouring through it, cleansing the dank, depressing air of the Manor. Chris found that he was smiling. Again. _Flipping hell,_ he thought. Blinking, he forced the smile to go away before he ran through the open doorway.

Chris' eyes darted momentairily across the homely street where the houses stood, perfectly ordinary homes, lined up in a perfectly ordinary neighbourhood. However, there was nothing ordinary about the pregnant woman who was crouched in the middle of the road, seemingly kissing the gravel. Phoebe watched Piper's display of emotion, bewilderment rooting her to the pavement.

"Mum?" Chris yelled, running to where she was knelt, sobbing as if she were kneeling before the gateway to heaven. Chris fell to his knees next to her and let her sob into his chest like a child in desperate need of comfort. The dam had finally broken, and Piper was overwhelmed by the effort it took to let out her built up pain and relief in the wails. Eventually, the worst of it passed, and it seemed to Piper that the world had gone silent, and her senses had been dulled. The only things prominent were her choked, wheezing breaths, and Chris' hand stroking her hair.

"Mum, this isn't like you," was what Chris wanted to say. But he didn't. Of course she was reacting this way, after what she'd been through. Even so, Chris felt like crying himself to see his mother- Piper Halliwell, the grittiest, most hard-headed Charmed One- so weak and vulnerable. His mother.

"It's alright, Piper." Phoebe said, kneeling down next to her sister, hugging her with tears in her eyes.

Piper sniffed, wiping away her tears. And Chris nodded. "Yeh. It is. Because now we can finally go get Gideon and kick his ass."

Though her face was blemished with blotches of red and tear-stained, and her hair greasy and unkept, when she smiled, Chris thought she looked so beautiful, despite it all.

"That's my boy." She said eventually, and Chris decided he shouldn't underestimate Piper's grit too much. .

Xx

Xx

**A/N:** Sorry about the long wait and so-so chapter. Back to school = very busy! If you're still keeping up with the story, thank you very much! Please review if you can!

:-)


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